Worth It
by EpicallyObsessed
Summary: Between investigating the murder of a fellow agent, coping with his unusual powers, and trying to tie up loose ends to said agents case, Kendall Knight has a lot on his plate. But when a case leads him to a certain hazel eyed brunette, he finds that it all might be worth it.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello everyone! So, I said that there would be a surprise today, well here it is! This is something that's been in my head for months. It's based off of a book that I recently read and as usual, it's a little different from the usual stories that I write. But If you're following my story 'On Your Side', then this will kinda play out as a more mature version of that story :P**

 **Anyway, this is kind of a prologue of sorts, so I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

The red Lycra miniskirt was riding up, and the toes on the knee-high boots pinched like a motherfucker, not to mention that the left heel was going to snap any second.

Why did these morons always run?

For once, it would be nice to corner someone and have the suspect stay put instead of taking off. It should have been a simple catch 'em and take 'em into headquarters to go over why selling charms with demons trapped inside was a monumentally bad idea.

Instead, the evening had been one pooch-screw after another to the tune of catch 'em red-handed, identify suspect, accidentally catch gun in the rhinestone strap of purse, get shoved into wall, run after them and quickly become short-winded due to uncomfortably tight corset.

Kendall hated the fucking corset.

He rounded the corner, scraping his elbow against the rough brick and cursing the five-inch heels. This would've been so much easier if he'd gone with three.

Kendall charged down the sidewalk. The guy was running out of steam. Kendall's wig flew off as he made a running leap and tackled the man to the ground. They went down hard, but the man broke Kendall's fall. A dozen of the trinkets scattered around them, near-silent yet bone-chilling whines of protest crying out from the demons within.

Kendall heaved in a deep breath and felt one of his seams split, which was just fantastic, considering the small fortune the thing had cost him on Ebay. "For the second time, the Society charges you with unlawful sale of dangerous goods." Then man started to struggle, and Kendall sank an elbow into where he suspected his spinal cord was. It was hard to tell. "I'm not chasing you again, so I suggest you calm down, or I'll shoot you for resisting and save myself the trouble."

"Nice, Kendall." Lucy said through his earpiece. "Do you know how much paperwork would be involved in that?"

"I'd rather fill out the paperwork than run another foot in these boots." He stood, still straddling the peddler's frame. Stepping over him, Kendall poked his side with a pointed toe. "Up."

The man lumbered to his feet, lip curled in amusement as he took in Kendall's disheveled appearance. Kendall glowered. If Lucy and his support team didn't show up to complete the arrest soon, he was going to punch the dickhead.

Kendall bent over to pick up one of the fallen charms. His left breast popped out of place, and he shoved it back in, annoyed. The crystal was no larger than his thumbnail. While it didn't look any different than your average Swarovski knock-off, occasionally the nearby streetlight caught it at an angle that illuminated the demonic inhabitant. It was a nasty-looking little thin, but pretty small on the oh-shit-it's-a-demon scale. It couldn't do much more than subtly encourage malice, which was probably why the idea of shooting the guy was so attractive. He might even be able to justify it under the Society rule-book regarding possession…

Too tempting. "What made you think of pawning these things off on tourists was a good idea?"

"It's good money."

"Is it worth the amount of trouble you're in?"

"How much trouble am I in?"

"Lots."

"Oh." He seemed to think about it for a moment and then shook his head slowly. "I guess not."

 _Idiot._ Kendall in relief when Lucy arrived with the backup team. One of the agents immediately collected the charms from where they'd fallen and Kendall happily coughed up the last one. The rubbed his fingers against his skirt to rid himself of the 'I touched something slimy' tingles.

Lucy dodged around the man as they pushed his toward one of the waiting cars, and gave Kendall an appraising once-over. "I'd give you an eight out of ten on your foundation, but your eyes need work."

"What? After the hours I spent trying to get the perfect smoky lid?" He peeled off one of his fake eyelashes. _Ow, ow, ow…_ "I hate these things. They itch."

"You're just not used to them."

"Oh, is that the problem? I thought it was the glue." He yanked the other one bandage style. _Fucking owww…_ "I don't know how you women do it. Is the desperation to find a quality man so bad that you have to subject yourselves to torture devices such as under-wire?"

Speaking of which… he pulled his tits out. If he ever had to do this again, he was splurging on the silicone breast forms. Cotton batting got too lumpy.

Lucy took them without comment and they made their way back to Kendall's car, trusting the clean-up crew to take care of the rest.

"Next time, it's your turn to be the hooker."

Lucy slid into the passenger seat. "But you're so much more convincing." She said as Kendall started the process of getting his makeup off.

Lucy retrieved her tablet from the back seat to enter the remainder of their case notes.

"And taking a look… yes. It does appear that we do have the weekend off. Do you think you could avoid getting us assigned to any bullshit cases by then? I'd really like to keep my plans."

"Far be it from me to interrupt date night. Make sure you say hi to Ben and Jerry for me." He expected a good-natured punch to the shoulder for that one, but he didn't expect it to hurt so much. "I look like a raccoon."

"There's something to be said for your dumpster-diving mystique."

Gunning the engine, he pulled away from the curb to head back to their office.

She saved her file and called up their email. "Nothing… nothing… spam… spam… Shall I assume that you're once again going to turn down the offer to enlarge your penis in three easy steps?"

"Hey, I don't need any help."

She rolled her eyes before scrolling down. "Do you know a Gustavo?"

Kendall grinned. "Gus finally got back to me?" About time. He was starting to think he'd have to go and track him down.

Lucy gave him a suspicious sideways glance. "What are you up to?"

"Me?" Kendall took a corner fast enough to throw her into the door, hoping to distract her with crappy driving.

But she wasn't fazed in the slightest.

"Yes you."

Damn. She was on to him. It was obviously time to start developing different distraction techniques. "I'm providing you with plausible deniability. Prepare to throw me under the bus with extreme prejudice if shit ever goes south." He tried.

"That's sweet. Are you trying to make up for missing my birthday?"

"I didn't miss your birthday. You choose a random day every year and claim it's your birthday so you can take time off. And for the last three, you've claimed to be twenty-one."

"Are you suggesting that I'm _older_ than twenty-one?"

He gulped. "No…"

"Then you may live." Lucy said as she silently cleared out the rest of their inbox.

She lingered on the last item on the screen, scratching her right earlobe, one of the nervous tics she'd picked up over the few years they've worked together. He hadn't told her about this one. He needed all the help he could get with her.

 _What now?_

"The office gossip network has some news about Jett Stetson…"

Kendall sighed, good mod obliterated. "Tell me he's been messily devoured by rabid bears."

"Not exactly…"

"Fallen into a volcano? Infected by the plague? Hexed by some angry gypsy so his cock blackens and falls off into a nest of snakes? He hates snakes. _God,_ I hope its snakes!"

He rounded the corner and headquarters came into view. Cutting across the adjacent lane, he slipped into the underground lot. His heart sank when he saw the familiar BMW pulled up in on the the choicest spots.

"He's back in New York."

Kendall smacked his forehead against his steering wheel.

* * *

 **Done! So, like I said, this chapter is more of a setup for the story, but I'd still l** **ove to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as if you would like to see more or not. And yes, Kendall dressed as a woman for the mission was inspired by the show :P**

 **I already have the next chapter almost done so if you all want more, I can probably have another chapter up by tomorrow!**

 **Can't wait to hear your thoughts!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with the second chapter of my new story! Before we get started, a huge thank you to those that read and reviewed the first chapter! I'm really glad that you all are liking it so far! Over the course of the next few chapters, the plot will start to become a little more clear :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

Sneaking in wouldn't have made a difference, his luck wasn't that good. Kendall resigned himself running into Jett the second he walked in the door.

He wasn't disappointed.

Kendall's spiked heels clicked against the hard tiled floor, announcing his arrival with the obnoxious fanfare usually reserved for celebutantes. The acoustics were spot on, drawing Jett's attention and that of the small mob of empty-headed secretarial staff surrounding him. There'd been a time when Kendall would've melted into a lovesick pile of Kendall-goo whenever Jett looked his way. Now? Now the fact that he was dressed like a titless prostitute made the frosting on his 'fuck me' cake that much tastier.

"Kendall. They told me you were on duty tonight." Jett said, and in Kendall's opinion, there was waaaay too much warmth in Jett's tone. The other man's gaze roamed over Kendall's outfit, and the corners of his mouth twitched in amusement.

Kendall's jaw clenched. "Agent Stetson. I didn't know you were coming back to New York. Did your assignment in Paris not pan out?"

Of course he didn't take the bait. "On the contrary. I wrapped things up quite nicely. And while the French might have the best croissants, I couldn't stay away from New York's many charms." He delivered the line with James Bond flair and a winning smile that swept across the crowd around him like a lighthouse beam. Together, the combined effect elicited enough high-pitched giggles to nearly burst Kendall's eardrums.

The amount of paperwork involved in shooting him suddenly didn't seem so bad.

"Your fan club was lost without you." Kendall said glancing over at the women who were still giggling like schoolgirls. Lucy's hand rested on the small of his back in warning and he nodded stiffly. "Anyway, I have case notes to update. See you around."

Kendall allowed Lucy to steer him across the lobby, baring his teeth at Jett in a bastard hybrid of a smile and a threat. It felt good. His jaw didn't relax until the door leading to their department closed behind them.

Lucy didn't even wait until they were back in their office. "You handled that well."

"Why couldn't he have stayed in Paris for another year? He'd have his fill of French women and bread and gotten _fat_."

Lucy opened the door and shooed him inside. "As of this moment, I am putting a suspension on your Stetson-rants. I'm sorry things didn't pan out between you two and that he rebounded faster than you did. But you _do not_ have permission to bitch about him."

 _One… two… three…_

"And stop counting. I'm not the one you're mad at."

The sad thing was that she wasn't even psychic.

Kendall dropped in his chair. "You're right, I'll try my best not to bother you."

"I hate it when you get all stressed out. It usually means you volunteer for extra cases and I lose my weekends." Lucy shifted through the mail on her desk, retrieving a single envelope from the tidy stack carefully laid out by their mail boy.

The guy didn't even bother trying to make a pile on Kendall's desk anymore. He just threw any mail into the maelstrom and bolted. Even the cleaning staff had stopped coming within a six-foot radius of his workspace. People were intimidated by the border between his and Lucy's adjacent desks, clearly defined by his rampaging chaos of papers, mismatched office supplies, poorly made paper planes and half-empty packages of gum, chips and ancient candy bars and her neatly organized In/Out tray.

If anything strayed across the line he rarely got it back without begging, a testament to her lingering frustration over her failed attempts to bring order to his chaos during the first year they'd worked together.

Lucy swapped her tablet for the bag on her desk. "Goodnight, Kendall."

After cleaning off the remainder of the makeup, exchanging his skirt for jeans and his corset for a T-shirt, Kendall planted himself next to his phone and punched in Gustavo's number. While he waited for it to connect, Kendall pulled up the case he'd coded off as incomplete over half a year ago.

Case M4-5002. What a joy that'd been. The Society had inadvertently fucked over the lives of three men with powerful paranormal abilities by not curtailing the ambitions of a mad scientist. Kendall had closed down the operation and the case had been taken over by a senior team that was kept separate from the Society's Field Staff. He'd been given a new case to work on and wasn't given any insight on how the follow-up was going. But a few lingering points had still remained for him alone.

One of the men had a brother who'd once been a guest in the same facility before a new doctor had taken over. Kendall had made it his personal mission to offer some sort of compensation by tracking his brother down.

After six months of getting nowhere, Gus was his last hope.

Hard static crackled from the other end. He held the phone away from his head as he waited for the feedback to die down. "Gus? It's Kendall Knight. I've been trying to get a hold of you for six months. What have you been up to?"

"Business." Gustavo said bluntly. "What do you need dog? I'm very busy."

"I need to talk to you about the foster system-"

"No. Not this again. I know you don't like families. You've said this many times. Well, you know what? Families don't like you. Why? Because you tell them things they don't want to hear. 'Husband's cheating on wife.' 'Dad is stealing from Society.' 'He turned our son gay.'-"

"Hey, he was gay when I got there."

After the death of his mother, Kendall had been shuffled between Society-sponsored foster families for years. The intention was to help kids with paranormal abilities learn to deal with them in a world dominated by normal humans. It was good in theory, and one that had seen a lot of success since Kevin introduced it. But occasionally kids like him came along. Kids who weren't really useful for much except pissing people off. The whole experience left an impression he'd admit he was still recovering from.

"You're lucky family number six took you."

"Yeah, well, fortunately for us all, they technically didn't." Not that they hadn't come close. The last fight he'd had with foster dad number five had been memorable enough that they were still talking about it over at Gustavo's apartment. The guy, who Kendall could easily nominate for biggest douche-bag in the universe, had left him on the curb outside of Gustavo' place with his suitcase. Gustavo hadn't been home. Kendall waited for over three hours, and sometimes he still dreamed about standing on that curb, waiting for someone to come and get him.

Eventually, Gus swooped in to his rescue, like he had for thousands of kids across the planet. As Kendall knew he would now. "I need to ask you about one your kids. Well, former kids I guess. I'm not good enough to hack into the database and I don't want to involve my assistant."

That didn't cover it by half. The foster system had the most impressive security in the entire Society. They took kids seriously, especially since no small number of them could be used to end the world. But Gustavo was loyal to kids he'd helped over the years, even when they grew up to be huge pains in his ass.

"What do you need?" Gustavo sighed.

"It was eighteen years ago. Do you think you'll be able to remember him?"

"Please, I remember all my kids."

"Okay. What can you tell me about a boy named James Diamond?"

There was a pause. "James. Yes. I remember James."

* * *

 **Done! So there you have it! Who is James Diamond? What is Kendall's unusual ability that seems to 'piss people off'? Who is Kevin? How awesome is Lucy?And what went down between Jett and Kendall?**

 **Okay, the last one is pretty obvious, but I'd love to hear you guesses to the questions as well as your thoughts on the chapter!**

 **The next chapter is in the works and will be up sometime this weekend!**

 **Until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back with another chapter! As usual, a huge thank you to those that read and reviewed last chapter!**

 **This chapter is where the story really starts to pick up some so I hope you all enjoy! :)**

* * *

A cardboard cup hit the desk next to his head, and Kendall woke with a jump. Practically falling out of his seat, he windmilled his arms to keep his balance. His wheels hit the floor again with a jarring thud and he glared first at the coffee.

"Did you sleep here last night?"

Fuck, she was terrifying before noon. "Maybe?"

"You need to get a life." Lucy tilted her head very deliberately toward the couch in the corner. "If you insist on being a workaholic, could you at least make an effort to sleep on the couch? You get cranky when you pass out in your chair."

"But my chair is so comfy. It perfectly cups the buttocks."

"Please don't ever say 'buttocks' again." Lucy groaned. " _Anyway_ , I walked by the stats board on my way in, and with the downfall of the demon-dealing deviant-"

"Nice alliteration." Kendall quickly scrubbed his teeth. He kept an extra set of clothes hanging on the back of their office door and a toothbrush had mysteriously migrated its way into the folds over the years. The pathetic rubber plant next to their door was starting to take on a refreshing, wintergreeny smell for which he took complete credit. He spat into the soil and downed the rest of the water.

"It puts us back on top over Agent Zevon."

Dak would love that. A couple hundred years ago, their friendly rivalry would have resulted in pistols at dawn.

Kendall winced. That would ruin his weekend. "He's going to take this out on me during our sparring sessions."

"Serves you right. Beating each other up is idiotic."

"It's a good way to keep in shape."

"And drain our first-aid resources. Don't try to justify it, Kendall. Everyone knows you just like messing up his hair."

Kendall breathed into his palm and sniffed. Nothing was grosser than delicious half-flavor of morning breath.

Lucy kept her eyes dutifully on her screen as he changed. A small scrap of paper on Kendall's desk drew his gaze, his late-night scribble more illegible than usual. _Violet Sage._ As discreetly as he could, he tucked the slip of paper into his pocket, hoping that Lucy didn't ask. This whole thing had the potential to blow up in his face, and he didn't want to drag her down with him.

"You're hiding something."

 _How does she always know?_

Their office door opened, cutting off his reply. He half-expected Agent Stetson, because the first ten minutes of his Friday were screaming to be ruined by one-sided sexually charged conversations, but Kendall's heart skipped a beat when a familiar mousy-looking looking man entered the room. Lucy stood from her seat immediately, but Kendall was slower to rise. _Shit, they caught me already?_

Kevin's assistant was a few years past his prime and, while he'd once been a successful Field agent, years of sitting behind a desk had taken it's toll on him. The only indication he'd ever seen fieldwork was the long scar bisecting the hairline above his left ear. Matthew was the longest-suffering assistant in the history of long-suffering assistants, but it never seemed to get to him.

"Agent Knight? Ms. Stone? Kevin would like to see you." Matthew took for granted that they'd follow and left the room without further comment.

Lucy stared at the space he'd occupied and then rounded on Kendall. "If you've volunteered us for a case, I will rip out your spine with my bare hands."

"I love you too, Lucy." The piece of paper in Kendall's pocket burned against his leg. He took a hasty gulp of coffee, hopefully not his last, and followed her out the door.

Kevin's office was at the very end of the twisting, labyrinth-like hall. Kendall shifted nervously, jitters dancing beneath his skin. It wasn't that being around Kevin freaked him out. But he had a pulse and a natural survival instinct, and both were sent into overdrive whenever Kevin was within more than about twenty feet. Of anyone. Except possibly Lucy. She looked more annoyed than petrified and stepped back to allow Kendall to go in front of her into the doorway.

While they'd all been given free rein to decorate their offices however they wanted, Kevin's was the same dark grey as the rest of the building. It was also about three times the size and seemed bigger with the lone oak desk sitting in the center of the room. He and Kevin had the same lack of organizational abilities, it seemed. A single lamp sat atop the chaotic assembly of papers, bringing very little light to the room's thick darkness. Kevin's was the only office that had no windows and it was easy to forget that the sun was up outside. All around them, the shadows seethed silently. Kendall wouldn't have been shocked if someone told him they echoed Kevin's heartbeat.

If he had one.

"You seem nervous, Agent Knight."

Kendall smiled, trying and likely failing to look casual. "Do I?"

Kevin sat forward at his desk and looked them over. Lucy looked radiant as usual but Kendall bet it was pretty obvious that he'd spent the night asleep in his chair. "The security team tells me you didn't go home last night. Is that correct?"

Kendall nodded. _It's official. I look like a hobo._

"Agent Knight, despite what you might believe, we do value work-life balance at the Society. Everyone is entitled to take a break now and then."

 _Oh thank God, it's a lecture._ Kendall withheld a sigh of relief. He could deal with Kevin's lectures. When the man moved into Society Head mode, things got unhinged.

"Yes, sir. Couldn't agree more. Lucy was telling me about plans for her weekend off, and I had something come up last night." _Please,_ please, _do not take a sudden interest in my personal life._

Kevin rested his chin atop his folded fingers. "And while I'd hate to interrupt any plans you may have-"

 _She's going to kill me._

"-we have had something come up that we'd like your help for."

 _With extreme prejudice. In the face._ "What's that, sir?"

Lucy stiffened beside him. In Kevin's books, asking was the equivalent to volunteering. Kendall wondered if she'd let him finish his coffee before she killed him and mounted his mutilated corpse above the door to the assistant's lounge as a warning to the other agents.

"When you closed M4-5002, you requested a place on the subsequent investigation, is that correct?"

The Dalhousie case. Kendall's throat tightened. "Yes, sir." Strict Society regulation prevented a mere Field agent like Kendall from investigating too deep into it.

"Do you still want it?"

He took a bracing breath. "It's assigned to Internal, sir."

Kevin didn't reply and his gaze didn't waver.

"Of course I still want it."

"We assigned Agent Wainwright to the follow-up. She was found murdered in her home this morning."

Kendall's mouth went dry. _Not Kelly…_

"I would like for you to take over where she left off."

"Just to clarify sir, you're promoting me to Internal?"

"Temporarily. Don't let it go to head."

"I won't, sir."

"We have a team at Agent Wainwright's house already. Everything she recorded will be forwarded to your assistant for review. And Kendall?" Kevin stood and turned his back on them to look into the shadows.

"Kelly was a good friend of mine." That almost sounded like actual emotion. "You find out who killed her and bring them back to me."

"Yes, sir."

Kendall glanced over his shoulder at Lucy, who gestured for him to follow her. They left the room side by side, the shadows around the door parting for them as they passed. Lucy's tablet lit up by the time they'd walked through the doorway as she called up information and re-categorized according to her standards.

"I'm sorry about your weekend."

Lucy didn't respond right away. "I knew Agent Wainwright, Kendall."

Kendall nodded. They made one stop back at their office to retrieve his blazer and guns before heading to his car. The trip was silent, Lucy absorbing every piece of available data, and Kendall…

Kendall was lost in his own distress.

He'd known Kelly too.

* * *

 **Done! And the plot thickens! Like I said, the story pretty much starts picking up here and I'm really excited about what's coming up!**

 **And I know that some of you may be a little confused and/or are wondering where James is and how he fits into all of this. Well that will all be revealed very soon!**

 **I've already started the next chapter and I'm hoping to have it up within the next couple days so until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello again everyone! Sorry for the delay, but this chapter took a little longer than I thought it would. Before I say anything else, a huge thank you to those that read and reviewed last chapter!**

 **Warning: This chapter pretty much focuses on Kelly's murder and it gets a little graphic**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Agent Wainwright's white-picket suburban home was tucked into a small, quaint neighborhood. The only thing missing was a group of kids with a hockey net in the middle of the street. Boxwood trimmed shrubs lined her property, precisely trimmed into four foot tall fences. Kendall pulled his car up to the curb behind a large gray van. The cleanup crew was already there. _They must be waiting on me._ His eyes fixed on the door. Nothing looked out of the ordinary from the outside.

He killed the ignition and glanced sideways at Lucy. Her face was still pale from the case briefing she'd read aloud on the drive over. It hadn't painted a pretty picture and, while little fazed her outwardly, Kendall feared for the stylus caught in her white-knuckled grip.

"Do you need anything else?" Her voice was low and somewhat scratchy.

"No. I have think I have the details that I need." He turned to face her. "Lucy, would you please wait in the car?"

She didn't argue, just silently passed him his earpiece, which he looped over his right ear.

"Lucy? _Lucy._ " Her head jerked up. "This is going to be hard on everyone. But I couldn't ask for someone better to have at my side."

She managed a smile, some of the color returning to her cheeks. "Of course you couldn't."

Kendall slid out of the car. "Are we recording?"

"Yes. You're good to go."

He made his way up the inclined front yard, pausing to look at the neatly kept flowers throughout the yard. "This is Agent Kendall Knight, assuming responsibility for Internal case MI-622. Agent Kelly Wainwright failed to report in this morning and, in accordance with Society guidelines around Internal investigations, we sent two agents to check on her. Upon discovery of her... her body, the case was escalated to Kevin's attention."

Kendall jumped up the two steps to the porch and bent over to examine the lock. "There is no damage to the lock. The front door is already ajar. Nothing points to forced entry." He pushed the door open the rest of the way and stepped inside. The pristine cleanliness of the front hallway wasn't a surprise. "There are no footprints or identifying marks in the entryway."

The air smelled like blood, nauseating and coppery. It clawed at his senses with a familiar beckoning. He glanced down the left hallway. He knew, he _knew_ , what he'd find in the master bedroom. But he wasn't ready for that quite yet. So instead he headed for the kitchen. Pictures lined the hallways, inexpensive frames holding up a lifetime of memories. Kendall recognized a few of the faces from the higher ranks of the Society. Men and women he'd seen cc'd on a thousand emails but never met face to face. He paused in front of aging photo, Kelly standing beside Kevin, both dressed to the nines.

He continued into the kitchen. There weren't any tacky ceramic figurines or gaudy paint jobs, only baby blue counters and white walls. He opened each cupboard with ease, checking a few of them twice. Each moment he didn't find anything was a moment that drew him closer to the bedroom. He saved the fridge for last. It was crowded with containers labeled with Kelly's feminine, loopy writing.

"There's nothing in the fridge."

"There's never anything relevant in the fridge, Kendall. There's probably nothing in the freezer either." Lucy said through his earpiece.

Kendall opened the freezer. "Sure enough." Nothing drew his eye, except for the tubs of ice cream.

He silently braced himself. The smell of blood was getting stronger with each step toward the master bedroom. The door hung on its hinges, sagging as if it were trying to escape the carnage inside. Kendall stopped short of the threshold, closing his eyes and counting to ten.

It didn't help, but he went in anyway.

"Agent Kelly Wainwright, and her husband Christian Jones are both lying on the bed. From the looks of their bodies, I'd say one of them was moved after death, which is supported by the blood trail leading from the back window.

"Christian is closest to the door. There's some minor bruising on his forearms, but nothing under his fingernails. His body has been arranged with his arms crossed over his chest. There's no immediately obvious cause of death. His eyes… his eyes have been removed from his head. Unless he was paralyzed, this was done post-mortem, judging from the cleanliness of the incisions.

"Agent Wainwright has a number of defensive wounds, including some severe lacerations to her arms. She put up a fight. It appears that she made it to the window but was unable to get it open. The latch is broken. She has a deep cut around the circumference of her throat, which is the most likely cause of death. The arterial spray indicates it happened at the window and she was then dragged back to the bed. Her body is arranged the same as her husband. Her eyes are also missing."

"Do you think the killer was after trophies? Something to show for their kill?" Lucy asked.

"Maybe. Let's make sure we're looking at any previous cases with that sort of tag. There's something in… yeah. There's something in her mouth. Looks like a coin, maybe? Lucy, do me a favor and look in the files the Society has on rituals for preventing communication with the dead."

"Already done. There's one in which a coin is placed in the mouth at the time of death to stop mediums from communicating with lingering spirits. Dead-end on access logs. I'm the first person to check it out in over two years."

"This was deeply personal, either against Agent Wainwright or the Society. Internal agents don't share their case notes with anyone except Kevin so nobody else would have known anything about her investigation. So either the killer was after Agent Wainwright on a personal level, or… or they were trying to send a message to the Society. Lucy, please make sure we pull all of her pending cases to check for anything out of the ordinary."

"This was her only pending, Ken."

"And we all… we all knew her well enough to know what the chances are of this being personal. Let's look back through her previous cases as well then."

"There are thousands of them."

"Then we're going to be at the office for a while." Kendall's fists clenched. "I'm sorry, Luce."

"It's alright."

"Agent Wainwright was one the people who helped Kevin with the restructuring. We should also be considering that angle." He paused. "When I gave Dr. Dalhousie's case to Internal, I thought it had something to do with the restructuring. Dalhousie got her resources from someone inside the Society. I remember thinking that it had to be someone who didn't like the way that Kevin had moved us. This could be personal, but not in the traditional sense."

"If that's the case, we'll want to inform Kevin right away. There's no conceivable way he could be in danger-" _Not with his power, not with his influence._ "-but he'll want to contact the rest of the people who helped him."

"Luce, call in the cleaning team. I'm done here."

Kendall stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. He took a deep breath through his mouth and slowly released, willing the tension out of his shoulders. Once he was sure that his mask of professionalism was tightly clamped in place, he made his way down the hallway to the front door. Forensics had set up on the lawn, surrounded by yet-to-be-organized tools. The would come in and take care of any lingering details and make sure the house was clean and habitable. At least they wouldn't need to exorcise any lingering ghosts who were pissed off at the world.

In his peripheral vision, he could still see the closed door. His mind readily called up the memory of the two bodies, still and silent. Why had the killer removed their eyes?

He rested his head against the door. _Kelly, I'm so sorry. I opened this can of worms… it should've been me they were gunning for. Not you._

Lucy's voice intruded on his thoughts. "Kendall?"

"Yeah?"

"We should head back to headquarters and start reviewing the case. I did a brief overview, and it looks like she made a lot of really good headway, but there's a lot to absorb."

Kendall cast a last look over his shoulder. From the other side of the door, Kelly seemed to call to him. It didn't feel accusatory, more… pensive. She was waiting.

And he wasn't going to keep her waiting long.

"Yeah, Luce. I'm coming."

* * *

 **Done! As I said last chapter, I know some of you may be a little confused, but I promise everything will be explained over the course of the story. And as you can probably tell, Kelly's murder will play a pretty big part in the story. There are also quite a few details in this chapter that will come into play later.**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter! :)**

 **I'm really excited about next chapter, mostly because a certain someone will be introduced. Let's just say, he leaves a lasting impression. Any guesses as to who it could be? ;)**

 **Also, a huge thank you/shout-out to Rusher0994 for helping me out with this chapter. Especially describing the murder scene!**

 **Sidenote, I'm thinking of making a Twitter/Tumblr or something so that I can keep you all posted on when to expect updates. I can also share sneak peeks at chapters, future stories, etc. Would anyone be interested in that? Just an idea I had...**

 **Next chapter _will_ be up either tomorrow or Saturday along with a new chapter of The Deal sometime this weekend as well. I'm also slowly working on chapters for my other stories so you all will be getting updates on those in the near future. **

**Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with a new chapter! As always, a huge thank you to everyone that read and reviewed last chapter! :)**

 **This chapter is one that I'm sure alot of you have been waiting for so I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

"Ken...Ken...Kendall...Kendall!"

His head snapped up. "What?"

Lucy stared at him across the desk. "I've been trying to get your attention for a full minute."

Kendall glanced at the clock on the wall. One fifteen and they still weren't through the backlog of Kelly's cases. It had been... enlightening. If he'd been as involved with the restructuring of the Society as Kelly had been, he wasn't sure he would've stayed in the field afterward. Even as an Internal agent. Her cases seemed to be one fucked up twist and turn after another. They'd flagged close to fifteen of her cases for follow-up and weren't even close to finishing.

"What do you need?"

"I've cross-referenced everything she's closed in the last five years with outstanding cases assigned to other Field agents. What else do we need to do tonight?"

Kendall stared at the pile of folders in front of him. They could stay the whole weekend and still have shit to read through on Monday. But it was late and they were both exhausted.

"I don't know about you, but everything is starting to blur together for me. Why don't you head home? We can pick things up tomorrow morning."

"Ken, I'm not leaving you here alone. I'd be enabling your workaholism."

He'd gotten a new mattress over four months ago, and it still wasn't broken in. Maybe she had a point. "Okay, first off, that isn't even a word. And second, if it makes you feel better, I'll head home to get some rest."

Lucy studied him, obviously not convinced. "Promise?"

He nodded. "I promise I'll make my way home and actually attempt to get some sleep in my own bed." And I'll be back here a six tomorrow morning to do some more digging.

Lucy collected her purse. "If I find out that you stayed overnight, you're on Starbucks duty for the next year. And I don't want to see you back here before eleven."

"Gotcha." He reluctantly stood and retrieved his jacket. He didn't feel right about leaving. Not when he saw Kelly's mutilated face every time he closed his eyes. But if he didn't get some real rest, he risked missing something important. He needed to be at his best. Kelly deserved no less.

Assuming he got any sleep. His mind buzzed with way too much energy, despite the exhaustion dragging down his own limbs. He flicked off the lights on his way out of the room and heading for the parking garage. When he grabbed for his keys, his fingers brushed the forgotten piece of paper inside.

He pulled out the scrap to look at the hastily jotted-down address. Gustavo had pointed him in the direction of a dance club, irritatingly vague when Kendall had asked what it had to do with James Diamond. Did he need to unwind a little? Maybe if he stopped by and found the man, he'd be able to sleep tonight. Imagining Shane's face when his brother called had to be better than flashbacks of the crime scene.

He and his car were in tune enough that she pretty much drove herself most days and Kendall zoned out behind the wheel, doing little more that pointing her in the right direction. He'd searched out directions to the club online, which were ridiculously complicated, after Gustavo had pointed him in the right direction. Kendall whipped out his phones's GPS more than once to figure out where he was supposed to turn.

Finally, his car came to a halt and refused to go any farther. It idled on the street facing a small entrance tucked into the back of a small building, unimpressed by the subtle bass pouring through the walls. He watched the entrance, studying the bouncers and the impressive line they managed.

Every so often, someone would approach and try to get past. Some succeeded. Some didn't. He couldn't tell what the criteria were to get in. Judging from the rapid beat of the music pouring out onto the streets and the large number of men who had been admitted entry, he could speculate.

Fortunately, finding shit out was kind of his specialty.

Kendall circled the block a few times before finally slipping into a vacant spot. He removed his earpiece and put it down on the dash beside his phone. Practically naked without them, he exited the car and headed toward the club's entrance. The bouncer finished turning two more men away before his attention drifted in Kendall's direction. Despite his misgivings, and suddenly under scrutiny, he strode confidently forward. The trick was to look like you knew what you were doing.

"Hey. I need to get in."

"Right. Sure you do." The bouncer chuckled and crossed thick arms. The silence very quickly stretched from awkward to embarrassing. Kendall frowned. He wasn't in the mood to get into a fight with hired muscle.

"Tell me how."

The bouncer's jaw twitched. "Either you prove you can or you're pretty enough that you don't have to." He said staring Kendall down intently. "I guess you just proved you can."

It was handy when people couldn't lie to you. And apparently it helped when trying to bypass whatever bullshit psychic exam they had set up at the door.

He opened the door and a heady remix of "Diamond Dogs" hit Kendall like a fist to the face. He fought his first instinct to recoil and pushed forward. The club was lit up with orange and red lighting, a haze of machine-generated smoke settling over the top of the jumping crowd. He barely heard the heavy door slam shut behind him. The front entrance led directly onto the dance floor, which was swimming with writhing bodies all moving with sexual harmony in tune with the beat, distinguishing features impossible to pick out.

Kendall shifted uncomfortably. Why had he thought it was a good idea to come right from the office? His faded jeans and black T-shirt already set him apart. The dress code seemed to be more... leather. He pressed against the back wall and snaked his way toward the bar in the east corner of the room. Even if James was here, how the hell was he going to find him? They'd packed the club to capacity, probably pretty normal on a Friday, and he struggled to pick out anyone in particular. He didn't even know what the hell the guy looked like.

He moved up to the bar, acknowledging a guy's appreciative once-over with his most attractive smile, and tried to hail the bartender.

He shouted over the thundering bass. "Hey, I'm looking for a guy named James?"

Someone snarled beside him. "Oh, I bet you are."

Kendall whipped around and came face-to-face with what was quite possible the most pissed off looking manwhore he'd ever seen. Like on most of the people around them, indecently tight leather pants clung to his legs. Unlike them, he was wearing a simple T-shirt with BOFJM embossed across his chest.

"Are you the one he left me for? 'Cause you should know, he doesn't date. He only fucks."

Fuck my life. "No. I need to talk to him-"

"Hey, Jesse, even if he's Jay's new lay, do you really think he's going to like that you're bothering him?" Another man slithered from the crowd clad in red leather.

"I'm not anyone's lay." Kendall protested.

They ignored him, the mother of all cat-fights poised to break out as soon as someone took the first swing.

He insinuated himself between them. "Guys, please-"

Jesse whipped around and sucker punched him.

What the... Unable to right himself, and with his jaw stinging from the surprising right hook, Kendall stumbled as his foot caught on one of the barstools. His temple whacked against the corner of the bar, ears ringing with the combined force of the two blows.

Fuckfuckfuck... He hit the ground, his forehead smacking the cool tile floor. Dazed, he blindly searched for the corner of the bar to pull himself up. This was a promising start to his search. Going down so easily must mean he'd been more tired than he thought.

Strong arms wrapped around him from behind and eased him to his feet. A long moment later, a cold cloth was pressed against the side of his head, and the same strong arms steered him off the floor. His vision was blurry, but when the music muted and the lights became significantly brighter, it became obvious they'd dragged him into an office door.

"Please tell me your not beating up my customers again." The voice broke through the water quality lapping at his ears. There was a man seated behind a nearby desk, though Kendall couldn't make out many details.

A deep, lyrical voice replied. "Chris, I am not beating up your customers again." The arms carefully lowered Kendall into a heavy wood chair. "He got caught between Jesse and Richie."

"Poor bastard. Should I call an ambulance?"

Kendall's head was tilted backwards. Oh. Oh, wow...

He suddenly knew with utter certainty that he was looking at over six feet of James Diamond. He shared a lot of Shane's dark good looks and brunet hair. They shared the same set of the jaw. Black eyeliner lent an almost intimidating sharpness to his gaze, but there was laughter settled deep within the liveliest hazel eyes Kendall had ever seen. The man was a vision in black leather and silver chains. And the smile... oh, the smile...

I am in such deep shit...

"Nah, he's alright. Just dazed."

Chris sighed. "Could you please tell your stalkers to stop their bitch fights?"

"I've tried. You're the one who keeps letting them in." James' attention didn't waver. "Give us a second. I want to find out if my new boyfriend here is okay." The music briefly returned and was silenced once more as Chris left the room. "Wow, you're cute."

Say something clever. Say something clever. "Umm..."

"Don't worry, I apparently have this effect on everyone." Warm efficient hands prodded at Kendall's temple. He'd had worse, he doubted it was anything more than a bump, but whatever James' fingers did felt so good. "Name, rank and serial number?"

"Kendall Knight, lota, 3C-21A."

The hands froze. "I was kidding."

"Oh." Kendall coughed sheepishly. "James Diamond?"

James stiffened. "Mitchell. James Mitchell. And lemme guess, Society agent?"

Kendall nodded.

"Figures. Cutest thing to drop into my lap in months and you're one of Kevin's lackeys."

Kendall blinked. "Hey, I'm not a lackey."

"No?"

"No. I'd call myself an entertaining gentleman of leisure."

"So you're here for my entertainment? That's a switch." James withdrew and Kendall automatically tried to follow him. "Down, boy. Anything else hurt?"

"Only my pride."

"Poor baby."

And before Kendall could reply, James kissed him.

The guy wore cherry lip gloss, and it didn't taste bad at all. There was nothing tentative or unsure about the press of James' mouth against his. Their lips touched only for a second before James made it his presonal mission to explore every inch of Kendall's mouth and claim it in the name of Awesome. It was intense and ridiculous and amazing and hot and, fuck, he was in So. Much. Trouble.

It ended as quickly as it began, leaving him all spinny and breathless.

"For your pride." James said.

"Thanks?" Kendall shifted in the chair but couldn't move his arms. He jerked them up and realized that his handcuffs had magically moved from his back pocket to securely loop between his wrists and the heavy oak chair in which he'd been planted. Oh, shit. How did he... "Uh, shouldn't we save the kinky stuff for later?"

Weak, Kendall. Totally weak.

James' thumb circled Kendall's lips. "Tell Kevin that his approach is imporving but, for the sixteenth time, no, I'm not interested in working for the Society." James kissed him again, a rich brush of the lips which ended far too quickly. "He can feel free to send you to ask again, though." He backed away and winked. "Hope you're psychic enough to call for help."

He ushered himself out the door.

Kendall stared after him, torn between annoyance and arousal. When he tried the cuffs again, annoyance won.

Fuuuuuuuuck.

* * *

 **Done! Told you all James would leave a lasting impression :P**

 **I'm sure this chapter brought up more questions, especially the whole 'James Mitchell' thing, but it will all be explained soon! You all also got a little peek at Kendall's power, which will be explored a little more as well.**

 **Next chapter might not be up until next weekend, but you will see more of Kames!**

 **Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as James and Kames' first encounter!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with a new chapter! As always, a huge thank you to everyone that read and reviewed last chapter! It really means a lot to me and your reviews are what inspires me to keep writing :)**

 **This chapters pretty much picks up the day after the last chapter and contains more Kamesy goodness.**

 **P.S. Please check out my AN at the end of the chapter for a little announcement ;)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Hey, Camille, can you check and make sure Ms. Johnson is refilling the prescription of meloxicam for Buddy? He seemed pretty stiff when he was in today. If she's having problems with the expense, let's find a way to subsidize."

James barely waited for the acknowledgement before using his clipboard to cover a yawn. Why, oh why, did they keep giving him the earlies on Saturdays? More importantly, why couldn't he handle his liquor anymore? He was twenty-six, not fifty. Six Goose and cranberries shouldn't have been enough to throw him. Or leave a Society agent handcuffed to a chair in Chris' office. Or kissing him. _Kevin's going to kill me._ But you didn't walk around with a mouth like Kendall's and _not_ get jumped when you walked into Violet Sage.

"Jay, there's someone waiting for you in reception."

"A patient?"

"No. He said it was personal."

The Society agent again. Any points he'd accumulate for persistence got docked for sheer annoyance factor. But James owed the guy one. Or two. Especially if Jesse had been the one to find him. "Let him in." He had kind of been expecting it since the clinic opened, after all."

Sure enough. The guy was still cute as fuck in the daylight. A small bruise graced the side of his face where his head had introduced itself to the bar, but he looked fine otherwise. Well-rested, even. Had someone else taken him home? A pang of completely irrational irritation hit him in the gut. It sucked, jealousy was so low-brow, but the thought of someone taking advantage of _his_ Society agents pissed him right the fuck off. Dibs still existed, right?

"Dr. Mitchell?"

 _Play it cool. He got the name right this time._ "Kendall Knight, lota, whatever. Yeah, hi. I was expecting you earlier." He gestured for Kendall to follow him. "I see Chris found you. Hope you weren't there too late."

"Can I say that wasn't very nice?"

"Sure you can." James ushered Kendall inside his office. When the door closed securely behind him, he rounded on the shorter man. "As long as I can say that ruining my Friday was a totally dickish move."

"I didn't mean to ruin your night."

"Look, I've told Kevin a dozen times-"

"Sixteen."

" _Sixteen_ times that I'm not interested in working for the Society and I'm getting bored of him asking. So while you were a refreshing spin on an old song and dance, I once again have to decline your invitation."

"Did it occur to you that I wasn't there for that?"

"Not for a second." James dropped into his chair and propped his legs on the corner of his desk. He'd picked out his most intimidating boots to wear to the office in anticipation of Kendall's arrival. Big, black, steel-toed and with more chains and buckles than could safely be worn without setting the expectation that there'd be serious ass-kicking. He'd wanted to make a statement. "And unless you're here because your goldfish needs CPR, you can walk right back out the way you came in."

"Actually, I think my goldfish might be dead."

And fuck the agent for being so fucking cute. It was so unfair.

"But I'm not here for that. Or to offer you a job. I'm here because I want to make sure I'm not getting you confused with someone else I've been looking for."

James cocked his head. He was great at staring contests, playing the quiet game, waiting for the other guy to speak. He wasn't about to ask Kendall what the hell he was talking about, that would just be inviting trouble. Judging from the subtle yet nervous fidgeting Kendall was doing with his pocket lint, he was about to win another one.

"Did you ever go by the surname Diamond?"

 _Still the stare-down champion._ "Yes, back before the Society placed me with the Mitchells. But they rock, and my biological mother is a whore-cow, so when they offered to adopt me, I jumped up and down and screamed yes."

Kendall stared at him from across the desk. "Then I came to tell you that Shane has been looking for you."

And suddenly he wanted to play dirty? "That's not funny."

"I-"

"My brother died in a car accident when he was six. So unless you're trying to rope me into joining the Society by putting me in touch with him on the other side, and believe me, you can't have anything in your pocket that I haven't already tried, you can go fuck yourself."

"Shane isn't dead, James."

"Stop it."

"Will you _listen_ to me? Shane became involved with a Society case about half a year ago and came across your file. When he found out that you were alive, he asked me to help find you and I've been looking ever since. Unfortunately, I was looking under the name Diamond."

James stood and rounded the desk. He didn't exactly tower over the agent, but he had a few inches on him. He turned on his most intimidating glare and stared the agent down. "Are you telling me the truth?" Because seriously, what the fuck? How could Shane still be alive. They'd told him... he'd mourned Shane. Intensely. Like he'd mourned his father and everyone else who'd been a part of his life before he'd spent three years in a coma.

How was it that so many years later, he was suddenly being confronted with the impossible? He didn't want to reach into Kendall's mind and rip the truth out, but he fucking would if the other man thought he could use James' grief as leverage.

"Why would I lie?" Kendall pushed a piece of paper into James' hand. "Call him."

James looked down at the piece of paper. A phone number had been scribbled down between frayed edges and multiple crease lines. Kendall must have played with it before working up the nerve to come talk to him. How long had he been waiting? James wasn't _that_ scary.

Well, maybe he was.

Mostly convinced, but still wary, James settled back on his heels. "You're doing this out of the goodness of your heart?"

"Yeah. Shane had a tough shake and I wanted to help."

And so James had to kiss him again, after he'd so wantonly flung himself over the line between adorable and perfect. Everything from those green eyes of his to the way he resisted for a heartbeat before completely falling apart. How long had it been since this man been properly kissed? It didn't matter. When James was done with him, Kendall wouldn't be able to remember his name. _I wonder if I could shift back my next appointment..._

There was a knock at the door. _So much for that._ James planted a proprietary kiss on Kendall's lips and gestured for him to sit down in a nearby chair. "Stay."

"Uh..."

"I wish you could communicate in polysyllables."

"I'm usually pretty clever."

"I bet you are." James winked and opened the door. The shepherd on the other side barreled in, dragging his owner behind him. "Toby! You've gotten so big."

XxX

This was some sort of weird dream. He must have overworked himself, had too much coffee and wandered into some bizarre wonderland in which better looking guys than were generally interested in him molested him with single-minded focus. Lucy had warned him this would happen. Well, sans good looking guys. He suspected she'd be insanely jealous on that account.

Kendall caught himself staring, torn between leaving and... watching. A voice at the back of his mind counted down the minutes until he'd promised to meet up with Lucy, but he couldn't will his legs to move. The dog's owner had given him a quick glance along with a small smile but then turned her utter and complete attention to James with the sort of doe-eyed amazement that Kendall suspected the man inspired in everyone. James' easy comfort around the dog, which easily could have passed as a small horse, put the owner quickly at ease. A few well-placed smiles and ludicrous amounts of flirty charm didn't hurt his cause either.

Eventually, the dog lost interest in James and came over to give Kendall a sniff. In the five seconds he brushed up against Kendall's legs, he left about a pound of fur clinging to his pants. Kendall brushed at it furiously, trying to dislodge the clumps of blond undercoat from his jeans and failing. How could the dog lose that much fur without any signs of balding?

Goldfish were so much easier to manage.

Before he'd gotten all of it, James showed the lady out the door and then rounded on Kendall with a decidedly predatory look. "Okay, here's the deal. I'm going to call this number. If Shane is on the other end, I'm going to _have_ to throw you down on the desk and ravish you with stupid amounts of enthusiasm. If it's not... then I'm going to do the same, but I'm not going to let you come."

And dammit, Kendall was getting sick of feeling off-kilter with this guy. "Well, I'm all for ravishing." Except it was creeping close to eleven and he already had a twenty minute drive back to headquarters. He didn't even want to think about the weekend traffic he'd have to contend with. And despite how appealing he offer was, he just couldn't ignore the case...

Thinking about Kelly killed his libido as effectively as a cold shower. He waited silently as James dialed the number Kendall had given him. The greeting was tentative at first but slowly, painfully slowly, James' face shifted from skeptical to overjoyed. It was amazing what a smile did for him. Like a light switch changing his setting from handsome to gorgeous. James dropped his head and cradled the phone against his cheek, his voice choked with a hundred emotions all trying to pour out at once.

Feeling better than he had in years, Kendall silently slipped out the door.

* * *

 **Done! So there you have it, Shane and James are (technically) reunited thanks to Kendall!**

 **Side note, how adorable is Kames in this? I've had a lot of fun writing this story so far mostly because I don't think I've ever written James like this :)**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as your thoughts on the Kames interaction. We won't be seeing James for a little while but this is _not_ the last we'll see of him ;)**

 **I'm hoping to update this again on Monday since I'm going to try and update one of my other stories tomorrow.**

 **And I have decided to make a Twitter, as well a Facebook page so that I can communicate with you all! I've love to talk with some of you to get ideas, opinions, etc. I will also keep you all updated on how chapters are going, new stories ideas, etc. I'm really excited and hope to have everything up and running within the next few days :)**

 **Until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Hello everyone! I know it's been a couple of weeks since I've updated this, but life has been pretty busy lately. Plus, this chapter was one of the hardest to write so far because this was the first funeral that I've written and I wanted to make sure that it was good.**

 **Anyway, a huge thank you/shout-out to everyone that read and reviewed last chapter! :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Kendall's fingers fumbled with the tie as he tried to loop it into something resembling a decent knot, working and re-working the already rumpled fabric until he ended up clenching the cheap length in his hands. He'd found his suit in the pile of old laundry at the back of his closet and brought it into work to change for the service. Kelly's service.

He resisted the urge to growl at the tie and yanked it off his neck.

"Here." Lucy tapped his knuckles to move his hands and fastened an elegant half-Windsor around his neck. "I don't know why you hate ties so much."

"I don't hate ties." He spoke too quickly, and she regarded him with a raised eyebrow. "I only ever wear them to funerals. And it's not fair that Kelly's..."

Lucy nodded in mute understanding. When she finished, she took a half step back to look him over. "You're passable."

"Gee. Thanks."

She, of course, looked as impressive as ever, professionally put together in a black skirt-suit and shoes that probably cost more than I could imagine. Next to her, he was sure he'd look like a half-rumpled mess.

"I should've dry cleaned this. Or ironed it. Or something."

"Hey, Kelly knew you. She wouldn't mind."

It didn't make it better, but he wasn't sure anything would.

They left the office together, Lucy a half step in front of him. Others, agents. assistants, even admin. personnel, crowded the hall around them, all dressed in black, each person a somber face in the sea of bodies moving toward the lobby.

Kelly had touched a lot of people.

They shuffled along with the others to the back of the room. Someone had spent tireless hours cleaning out the furniture and temporarily relocating their reception to block everything off to the public to give them space for the service. Every agent from their head office, and a few people he didn't recognize, squeezed into the small place, facing the bottom of the staircase at the head of the room.

Kevin sat alongside a small gathering of the senior leaders in the Society's investigative division, partially hidden by a podium they'd set up at the front of the room.

He recognized one or two retired Society members from the early days of Kevin's takeover who must have been close to Kelly. Aaron Anderson stood out especially, Kendall's personal hero, whose 96% success rate he'd been chasing since he'd walked in the door.

There were small handful of others whose portraits hung with care in various places in the building. A group of private heroes who'd brought the Society out of darkness. Agent Wainwrights picture hung in a gilded frame before them, surrounded by a semi-circle of lit candles.

When the filled room couldn't fit another person, and each agent was rubbing shoulders with the person beside them, Aaron stood and moved to the podium. He shuffled a few papers and stared at the pages for a second. Finally, without comment, he carefully folded them and tucked them into his side jacket pocket.

"My name is Aaron Anderson. I'm sure many of you don't know me."

There was no mass murmur of denial or agreement. Aaron had retired soon after the Society's restructuring but remained a very real presence.

"But I was a good friend of Kelly's, so Kevin and I decided that I'd be the best person to talk about her.

Standing up here now, it's hard to figure out what I'm supposed to say. We all knew Kelly. We knew her work ethic and we knew her way with people. Some of us better than others. Old farts like me can tell you that in her day, when the days were more like nights and we didn't have any of the support and guidance that you do now, Kelly was an outgoing advocate for what the Society _could_ be. She knew that this organization and many of the people in it were capable of great things, and she wanted nothing more than to give everyone the chance to prove it. Those were dangerous thoughts, once."

Kevin shifted uncomfortably. Had anyone else noticed?

"But today, as we all stand here together to mourn her loss, I ask you all to put yourselves in her shoes. Kelly could've left or quit. She was entitled to it, and God knows she deserved it after everything she's done for the Society. The reason she stayed was because she wanted to be the person who set an example and led by that example. When the path was cluttered with sharp debris, she wanted to be in front, showing people the way, even if the way wasn't easy. She wanted to everyone around her to become what they were capable of being and realize their potential in a way that inspired others.

Kelly was responsible for the way the society changed over the years. Hell, she's even responsible for many of you and how successful you are in your roles. Without Kelly, it feels like the Society has lost a large part of itself, and I'd like everyone to take a second to think about what that absence will mean."

Kendall bowed his head and stared at the floor.

"Kelly Wainwright was one of the founding members of our new Society. She was an agent, a wife, a companion and, to me as well as many of you, a friend. And I know I'll remember her for what she brought to us through her actions and her willingness to step forward as a leader among her peers."

Aaron nodded curtly and stepped away from the mic. With a nod to Kevin, he returned to his place among his colleagues.

Kevin stepped forward and looked out at the room. Kendall couldn't think of more than a dozen people in the room who the Society Head hadn't personally checked over before they'd come aboard. Now, as their leader considered them, there was a sad aura hanging on him like a shroud Kendall had never seen him wear.

"Kelly deserved more."

The words hit the crowd like a wave breaking against a seawall. Kevin stared ahead blankly, struggling with something. Something big. Kendall could tell.

Finally, his eyes refocused. For a moment, they appeared pitch black all the way through. Somehow, Kendall didn't figure it to be a trick of the light.

"You should all know that Kelly reviewed the performance of every agent standing in this room. And if she found you worthy of being here then you are not going to let her down."

Kevin stepped away from the podium. It released them all from their reverent silence.

Then it was over.

Aaron hung back with Kevin, tempting Kendall to stay and try and get a few minutes with him. But it felt too much like an invasion of privacy so he let himself get pulled along with the flood as the sea of bodies started for the doors.

He had work to do.

He sensed a presence close behind him and rolled his eyes when he spotted Jett hovering over his shoulder. Before Jett could say anything, Kendall dodged between two large men and joined the crowd heading toward a different exit. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Stetson's bullshit.

Sneaking out from between the two muscle-bound agents, he found himself trapped in an empty corner of the foyer, waiting for an opening in the wall of bodies. From where he stood, he could hear Kevin speaking with Aaron, their peers disappearing along with the remainder of the crowd.

"...and her personal files?" Aaron's voice stood out from Kevin's.

"Gone, along with the rest."

"Don't you think it's dangerous to have that sort of information floating around? Kelly knew all of our secrets. Yours, especially, might be damaging if they were to fall into the wrong hands."

"It's too late to prevent that now. All we can hope for is that my agent finds them quickly and deals with whoever has them in a way that doesn't inconvenience anyone's need for secrecy."

"Well then I hope whoever you have on it is good."

"He's the best."

"Mind if I ask..."

"Kendall Knight."

"God, Kevin... you really like taking chances, don't you?" The voices faded as Kevin and Aaron made their way up one of the adjoining staircases.

Kendall leaned against the wall, considering the words. He was Kevin's best? And Kelly had reviewed every agent, including him. He couldn't let them down.

* * *

 **Done! Like I said, I'm sorry that this chapter took a little while. I hope that I did Kelly's funeral justice.**

 **From here on out things start to get more interesting as Kendall starts looking more into Kelly's murder. And to make up for the long wait, I will be updating tomorrow and hopefully either Saturday or Sunday! Next chapter is practically finished so it'll definitely be up tomorrow!**

 **Until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, as well as your thoughts on the funeral!**

 **P.S. I've made a Twitter account! It's not completely setup just yet, but I will set it up over the weekend! You can follow me for updates on upcoming stories and updates, you can also contact me with story ideas, opinions or just to talk in general :) If you want to follow me, my Twitter username is EpicObsessed! ;)**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hello again everyone! As promised, I'm back with a new chapter! But before we get to that, a huge thank you to those that read and reviewed last chapter! :)**

 **Like I said last chapter, from here on out, things will get a little more interesting as Kendall starts learning more about Kelly's murder. Starting with this chapter. There's also an honorable mention of everyone's favorite hazel eyed brunet ;)**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

In a miraculous turn of fate, both he and Lucy stopped for coffee the next morning.

Kendall made it halfway through his second cup when he dropped the latest file down on top of the piles of papers they already had on the go.

"You know what doesn't make sense to me?"

Lucy looked up. "What?"

"Each one of her past cases has personal notes and observations scribbled in the margins. She personalized everything that ever crossed her desk. So why does her new stuff only have an average background write-up?"

"Maybe she adds those in at the end."

"Things get stale by the time a case is wrapped up. Especially the lengthy ones. Wouldn't it make more sense to keep running commentary? And if so, why didn't we find any notes in her office? Or her home? She should've had some way to keep things up to date and fresh in her mind."

"Do you think the killer took them?"

"Yes. Unless she hid them somewhere pretty clever, he'd have had all the time in the world to search the house and remove anything that looked even marginally important. And think about it, the progress reports she'd submitted are only updated until last week. If she'd found anything since then..."

"Cheerful thought."

"No kidding."

He re-buried himself in his work, barely looking up when the door opened a few minutes later. Before he even noticed him, the man standing next to him gently placed the autopsy report atop the piles of paper cluttering his desk.

Kendall winced at the accompanying whiff of expensive cologne, but he looked up anyway. Why was he dropping it off? _Don't we have lab rats responsible for that?_

"Agent Stetson."

"Kendall."

Why couldn't they go back to formalities? This was the one instance where Kendall would've preferred 'Agent Knight'.

"I understand congratulations are in order. Being promoted to Internal is quite an accomplishment."

"For someone of my experience, you mean."

"If I'd meant that, I would have said it."

 _Goddammit, why do I keep coming off as the bad guy?_

"Thank you." Why didn't yoga help with his teeth-grinding? "We're a little busy, so if you don't mind..."

"I was actually hoping you could take a few minutes so we could catch up."

Kendall didn't respond. Predator's vision was based on movement. If he remained still and silent, Jett would go away.

No such luck. "Lucy, could I bother you to sign me out a laptop? I'm afraid mine was destroyed on Paris."

Lucy didn't look up from her monitor. "Sorry. Busy."

Jett stiffened slightly. When you were used to people fawning over you, getting rebuffed could be a rude awakening. "Please?"

"She's my assistant, Jett. Get your own."

"Fine. If she won't do me that _one_ favor then would she be terribly inconvenienced by leaving and giving us a few moments alone to talk?"

"We don't have anything to talk about."

"I disagree."

"Well, I don't care." Kendall stood. "You got what you wanted from me, Jett. There's the door."

Jett's frown didn't really play well into his GQ mystique. "You're the one who wouldn't come with me."

"I didn't realize that meant I'd given you permission to fuck half our secretarial pool." Kendall replied through gritted teeth.

"At least they'd give me the time of day. You're impossible to be around. Your work always comes first. Before your physical needs, recreation time and me." Jett said, and Kendall hated hearing the hurt in his voice.

He knew he had made mistakes, _still_ made some of those same mistakes. But he wasn't backing down this time.

"You don't get to put this on me, Jett."

"I don't? Then are you ready to explain why you wouldn't come to Paris with me?"

"We've been over this."

"Refresh my memory. Because what I remember is that because Paris isn't the same hub of supernatural activity that New York is, you wouldn't have had the excuse of a heavy caseload to keep you at the office for fifteen hours a day. And God forbid anyone come between you and your career." Jett leaned over his desk. "Couldn't I have made you happy, Kendall? Just me?"

"Obviously not."

Jett stood stock still in place for a few seconds, seeming to take in Kendall's words before he finally left.

Kendall's head sagged and he took a few deep breaths to even himself out. Lucy waited out the tensed air as Kendall fought down the hurt curling through him. It didn't matter how good he was at playing the martyr, Jett was just as much at fault. Kendall had even decided to go with Jett to Paris before he'd walked in on him and Anonymous Administrative Assistant Number Three. Jett conveniently forgot to mention that point.

 _Get a grip. You're supposed to be over this._

"Ken?"

"Let's get back to it." He sat back down in his seat and reviewed the autopsy report.

As he'd suspected, Kelly's COD had been blood loss from the slash across her throat. Christian's had been harder to identify, but it looked as if he'd been smothered. How had the killer managed? Surely Christian would have woken if Kelly had put up as much of a fight as her defensive wounds indicated. And there was no way she would have slept through her husband dying beside her.

Maybe she was in the master bedroom? They'd cleared it as an active part of the scene... He flipped to the toxicology report. There had been nothing out of the ordinary in the bloodstream. The mysterious paralytic or poison he'd been banking on was a pipe dream, it seemed.

A random snippet of information caught his eye. "Huh. Agent Wainwright and Christian were both lactose intolerant."

"And that strikes you as particularly important?"

"Well... yeah. There was a _lot_ of ice cream in their freezer, Luce." He grabbed the manila folder of crime scene photos. Quickly flipping through them, he found one of their medicine cabinet. Their team was nothing if not thorough. "And there's no sign of anything that would've helped them manage it."

"What's your point?"

"My point is that I'm going to go and help myself to some of her Chunky Monkey." He said before checking his pocket for his keys and heading for his car.

Kendall was halfway to Kelly's neighborhood when a traffic jam stalled him on the freeway. Because what he really needed was to be alone with his thoughts. He settled back in his seats, staring at the not of poorly merged traffic fighting at the ramp up ahead. He was going to be there a while. Reaching blindly to the passenger seat to grab his phone, he found a familiar piece of paper instead.

 _Violet Sage._

Despite himself, he smiled. It had been nice to think of something besides the case, even if he'd spent an hour handcuffed to a chair. And he'd found James, which had been much easier once he'd stopped looking for vets named Diamond and started looking for Mitchells. And James himself had been... Kendall hadn't really been expecting a carbon copy of Shane, but James had been as unstoppable and unpredictable as a tsunami. And dangerous, because Kendall had really wanted to stay and take the invitation extended by James' kiss. Too bad he'd probably never see him again.

Maybe Lucy was right. If he was making this big a deal out of one kiss, he really needed a life.

By the time he'd made it to Kelly's home, it was already late afternoon. Getting back to the office would only result in another all-nighter, and Lucy would murder him if he tried it. He placed a quick call, unsurprised when it went to her voicemail, and told her to take off and try to salvage what remained of her evening.

A surveillance team had set up across the street, and Kendall waved to them before heading inside. The scent of blood was mostly gone, or all gone and he was just imagining it, but he didn't dare look toward the master bedroom when he stepped inside. He headed right for the kitchen.

 _Come on, don't let me down._

He opened the freezer and retrieved the first carton of ice cream he saw. It was light. Really light. He popped open the lid. About five airtight zipper-locked bags were rolled up at the bottom of the carton. And tucked inside each one...

 _Great job, Kelly._

He pulled out the baggie to look at the USB key inside. She'd written out a number on a strip of tape stuck to the bag. _M4-658_. A designation for a Society case file. A dozen neatly stacked ice cream cartons crowded the freezer.

His mother had thought the icebox was one of the safest places to keep her valuables too.

* * *

 **Done! Looks like Kendall jut found one of his first clues! You all also got a little insight on what went down between Kett! You also got that honorable mention that I talked about in my earier Author's Note ;)**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as your thoughts on Kett and Kendall's little moment remebering James :)**

 **I have started the next chapter but I'm not sure when it'll be up. I'm shooting for either tomorrow or Sunday because I have a feeling that you all are really going to like the next chapter. Plus, I have most of next week off so hopefully I'll be able to get some more writing in then :)**

 **And for those that missed it, I've joined Twitter! I will be setting up my profile over the weekend but my usernam is EpicObsessed so be sure and follow me for updates, chats, etc.!**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello again everyone! Three updates in a row... I think that's a new record! :P Again, a huge thank you to everyone that read and reviewed last chapter!**

 **This chapter was fun ro write and I'm sure you'll understand why once you read it. I hope you all enjoy! :)**

* * *

Paydirt. The entire collection was pretty much fucking paydirt. The stick that contained her most recent case also sported an impressive collection of notes from the original investigation into Dalhousie's activities. Even though the notes read like a textbook from the 1970's. It was frightening that the Society had sanctioned this shit during any point in their history.

 _...Jessica largely deflected the blame for her actions. She claimed that her orders had come directly from the Head of Research and Development for the Society, please refer to staff file 1B-15A, and she feared for her life if they were defied._

Yeah, right. When he'd met Jessica Dalhousie, he'd thought a lot of very not so nice thoughts about her, but he'd never considered her a sheep. Her cold individuality had struck him and he couldn't imagine she'd be much different when the restructuring went down. Her entire defense read like she was trying to cover her ass while being too afraid of the consequences of saying anything meaningful.

Kendall tore himself away from his laptop at the knock on his door. He quickly ejected the USB drive and shoved it between the pages of one of his magazines and tucked the entire package between couch cushions. Hopefully it was a safe enough spot for it to remain hidden in the event of his cold-blooded murder.

"Coming!"

 _Don't panic._ Just because he had more sensitive information in this apartment than the Society did in half the Archive didn't mean someone was here to kill him. But it didn't hurt to be careful. In a single smooth move he retrieved his gun from the coffee table and loosened the safety/ _Horror movie rule number one, never ever ask who's at the door._ He quietly crossed his apartment.

Pressing himself against the wall, he covered the peephole with his palm to imitate someone checking the door. Kendall half expected the person on the other side to take the convenient opportunity of mistaking his hand for his head and blowing it off. Pleasantly surprised by the lack of gunfire and splattered fingers, Kendall finally chanced a peek into the hallway, still tensed to leap back in case someone opened fire.

 _James._ James was at his door. James was outside his apartment. James knew where he lived. Kendall's cheeks flushed, but he opened the door anyway.

Before he could invite the other man in, James brushed past him into the apartment. a large pizza box balanced on his forearm. "I wish my place was this nice." The tantalizing smell of melted cheese and pepperoni followed in his wake. :I live in the smallest shithole ever. There's barely enough room for my wardrobe."

Kendall closed the door and followed him into the kitchen. James placed the pizza on the counter and threw open the nearest cabinet door to search for plates. It gave Kendall a chance to look, really look, at him. He wasn't dolled up as he had been at the club, but he'd forgone the vet scrubs as well. Large silver rings decorated his middle fingers and another silver skull shaped band was wrapped around his thumb.

His movements were the same, at ease and in control, but he seemed more relaxed. And seriously, there was something about sinfully tight black jeans and T-shirts that really turned Kendall's crank.

"What do you like on your pizza by the way? I got everything on this one. It's easier to pick toppings off than to try and re-cook it, and trust me you never want to try and re-cook anything deep dish. It practically explodes." James finally found the plates and put them on the counter next to the pizza. "Think you could put the gun away? I'm not going to lie, getting a bit antsy over here."

Kendall blinked and immediately clicked the safety back into place. "Sorry." He dodged back into his living room to holster the gun. It was only another second to tuck both into the gun safe in his front hall closet.

James had made himself busy with slicing the pizza while he waited.

"How did you-"

"You think you're the only one Gus keeps in touch with? I called him up to find out what your deal was, as you couldn't possibly be as perfect as I thought you were. Unfortunately it seems that you are, in fact, that perfect so I decided we needed to get to the ravishing we discussed earlier, so I came under the guise of bringing dinner."

 _Okay, Kendall, deep breath in. Yep, the air is still breathable. If someone shot you through the door and this is a pain-induced hallucination, you'd better enjoy it._ "Okay."

James lifted an eyebrow. "Okay?" He settled his hip against the countertop and cocked his head. "That's it? I was expecting a fight. Considering what Gus said, I almost brought a crowbar along to pry you away from your computer."

And damn it, he hated that Gustavo just seemed to give Jett's argument slight validation. He also hated that his mind went to Jett in the first place.

And how did Gustavo know about his habits? "Well... I may have been working from home. A little."

James' eyebrow rose.

"But I guess it could be time for a break."

"Awesome. I'll dish the pizza. What do you have to drink around here?"

"Gin, mostly."

"Gross. Who drink gin? You might as well suck on a pinecone."

Voices like his did _not_ get to say 'suck' without provoking some serious mental hysteria. Numbly, Kendall crossed the kitchen to pour himself a generous amount of aforementioned pinecone and whip up something for James. He still had the ingredients for a whiskey sour. Lucy tended to leave her extra behind on nights they worked together outside of the office. _I wonder if I'm bleeding out through my neck..._

"Would you stop? You're not dying. You're incredibly adorable and utterly fuckable and those are two of my favorite things."

Kendall blinked. It made sense that James was psychic and shared a few of his brother's talents. He tried to remember what had been in James' file but came up with exactly zilch. He'd been more worried about finding the guy.

Thinking of which... "How's Shane?"

"Fantastic. Did you know he's in Greece right now? He's due back in a few weeks. He was all about cutting the trip short and coming home early and I literally had to order him to stay there and enjoy himself. I mean, it's not like I don't want to see him, because I'm dying to, I really am. But I figured it would give me time to get you out of my system."

"That's flattering." And surprisingly honest...

"No offense, but I'm not sure involving myself with a Society agent is really conductive to my overall well-being and sanity. And aren't there rules against dating people like me?"

Kendall frowned in confusion. "Men?"

"Former case file subjects."

"Oh. Uh, no. Not anymore. There used to be, but things got a little... Shakespearean. With less cross-dressing."

James traded him a plate of pizza for the whiskey sour and Kendall immediately dug in. It sure beat the leftover Chinese food wasting away in the fridge. He was sure that any day now, it was going to come to life and he'd have to go to the trouble of re-killing it and cooking it all over again.

"Is it just me, or is it like a fridge in here?"

"I don't like the heat."

"No kidding. I feel like I should've brought mittens."

James drank half of the whiskey in one long swallow. And Kendall hated him a little for how attractive his Adam's apple looked. How could an Adam's apply be that hot?

"It's won awards before." James said with a grin.

"They have awards for that sort of thing?"

James looked slightly confused for just a second before he burst out laughing. " _That's_ what Shay meant. People can't lie to you, can they?"

"Not to my face."

James downed the rest of the whiskey, chasing it with a sizable bite of pizza.

"Must be convenient in your line of work."

"Maybe so. But I've come to the conclusion that you can't have a relationship with someone if you can't lie to them." Because things always got... awkward. Jett aside, there'd been too many other disasters to count. Like Victioria, who'd admitted she was thinking about her ex within minutes of getting Kendall into bed. Or Luke. Or Jake. Or...

And then James was kissing him again. He tasted like pizza and whiskey and lemon and nothing else Kendall had ever experiened.

It didn't last long, but Kendall was breathless when James pulled away. "You look entirely too lost. Sex thoughts should be happy thoughts."

"I'm... sorry?"

"Rule number one is no apologizing. I'm unapologetic about almost everything and I hate it when people say they're sorry for something they can't control."

"Understood."

"Good. Now, I've been fantasizing about giving you a blowjob since I left you handcuffed in Chris' office, so if it's alright with you..."

"Oh, you don't have to-"

"Kendall, I've collected three great pieces of advice in my life from the multitude of bullshit people have told me through the years. Number one, don't drink beer with a straw. Number two, never try to play with a cranky pit bull. And three, never, _ever_ turn down a good BJ."

"And you're good?"

James sort of... stared at him for a moment. "Oh, Kendall..."

And that was pretty much the last thing Kendall was able to coherently process for the rest of the night.

* * *

 **Done! I gotta say, I love writing this James! :P**

 **So you all got some more Kames action, and you've found out what Kendall's power is that seems to piss everyone off :P**

 **The next chapter is in the works, but it may take another day or for those waiting on updates for The Deal and some of my older stories, I promise that they are coming soon. I plan on updating The Deal before next weekend. As for my older stories, I've gotten a bit of writers block. But I think I'm going to change up my writing style a little for those stories. Hopefully that'll help :)**

 **And I know that some of you are having trouble finding me on Twitter, so I was thinking that maybe you can leave your Twitter username in a review if you want and I can follow you and you can follow back :)**

 **Again, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with a new chapter! As always, a huge thank you to everyone that read last chapter!**

 **I'm glad that you all enjoyed the Kames! And although there is no James to be found in this chapter, his presence is definitely felt. You'll see what I mean ;)**

 **I hope you all enjoy this chapter, which is dedicated to winterschild11! :)**

* * *

James had left before the sun came up the next morning. Kendall rolled over, curled into the still-heated pillow and let the other man's scent keep him company in a bed that suddenly felt far too big and empty. Jett had been the last person to sleep in that spot, but thinking of how they'd ended didn't bring the same pang. Maybe he really _had_ needed sex.

By the time he'd jumped in the car and headed to the office, he was back on task. The answers were buried somewhere in Kelly's files, but going through them was going to take a long time.

Much of Dalhousie's research had ended up on one of Kelly's other USB keys. It was in the third carton Kendall opened, and the information practically filled it up. A lot of it was number charts and weird graphs, of which Kendall understood exactly zilch. But he occasionally stumbled upon an actual report that he mostly understood.

 _...the considerable amounts of drugs in the subject's bloodstream. In this state the Transference Vector was largely ineffective. In order for the process to work at its best potential, we hypothesized that the subject had to experience severe emotional and physical stimuli..._

Why couldn't there be a Rosetta Stone for non-scientists when it came to reading reports like this? She referenced the 'Transference Vector' multiple times, it sounded like a bad sci-fi, but nothing explicitly stated what it was. Or, if it did, the language went way over Kendall's head. _Something_ about it had to important, otherwise she'd done a lot of research for nothing. And if it was important, he had to dig it out.

Dr. Dalhousie kept referring to specific variables, each one labeled with what she referred to as a "TVX call sign" and carefully cataloged with different numbers next to them. Almost like a descriptor.

 _Or an amount._

Lucy stumbled into the office, bleary-eyes, around nine-thirty. She looked accusatory at the empty spot on her desk where a coffee should have been and then up at Kendall.

"Long night?"

Lucy glared at him and sat behind her computer. "Don't ask."

Kendall smiled. "You deserve a long night, Luce."

"I deserve a raise and three Bradley Cooper clones too, but those are all clearly absent."

"You could take an extended vacation."

"I've already used my vacation time for the year. Unlike you. You have enough vacation banked to take a whole year."

Kendall shrugged. "What would I do with a year off?" _Spend it with James living in pure self-indulgence._ Dammit. He'd been doing so well at keeping his mind off the brunet. Thinking about James had him flushing again and he looked deliberately back at his screen. _Focus, she's going to know..._

"Get laid."

Happy that her exhaustion had prevented her from using her unusual Lucyness to figure it out, Kendall kept his attention focused on the screen. For some reason, _jameslipskissingtouchingohmygod,_ he was having a lot of trouble concentrating. It wasn't like he'd ever see the guy again. It had been a, _sweetamazingholyshititwasprobablythebestever,_ one-off. Kendall had his commitments to the Society to think about, and James had made it pretty clear that he wasn't into having an affair with someone who was already married to their job.

Of course, if anything had ever tempted Kendall to give it up...

 _Stop that._

"You are so out of it today." Lucy said.

Kendall looked up. "Pot, meet kettle. You two have so much in common."

"Don't try and distract me. Who is she? He? Is it Victoria from accounting?"

"Hush, woman! Let me focus." Yeah, because that response had been so totally effective in the past. He was lucky she was too tired to kill him.

He pulled open his notes from his previous investigation, briefly skimming over his findings. He'd tried to be more diplomatic than usual when he'd questioned the victims, especially since one of them had been particularly eager to physically express his intense dislike of the Society by ripping Kendall's arms free of their confining sockets, but he'd gotten a few usable statements.

 _...she was constantly forcing pills down my throat. This one time, I think I took close to fifty in one afternoon. I don't know what the point was. They never seemed to do anything._

Kendall checked the cleanup crew's inventory sheet. Sure enough, they'd found numerous unidentified pills and liquids in her labs. They were still awaiting testing results, the Society labs were pretty much had their hands full and he'd reported the initial case closed. Kelly hadn't gotten around to re-initiating anything. So that left him. Everything was stored in one of the evidence rooms downstairs. He jotted down the number and stood.

"I'm heading down to the storerooms. I think some of this stuff would make more sense if I put it in context."

"Try not to knock over any ancient relics. It took the maintenance crew forever to get the ghosts out of the rafters last time."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you ask me, we should be more liberal in our use of bubble wrap."

He had to stop and provide his credentials to the lone man guarding the storeroom door, becuase curse anyone who tried to get past him without signing in, and continued into the maze of hallways.

They'd stored the drugs in the second sub-basement. Kendall navigated the corridors, wishing for the thousandth time that they'd install a map. After passing the same door twice, he finally figured out the right turn. The room was easier to figure out than the hallway, each cabinet and shelving unit carefully coded.

"M4-5002... there's 4000... so 5000 should be right around here..." He wound around to another aisle, stopping when he reached the right area.

The storage bin was empty.

"You've gotta be fucking with me." He yanked out his phone. "Lucy? There's nothing on the shelf. Someone's cleared out everything we collected!"

"Hold your horses, it may have been misfiled." The sound of her fingers flying across her keyboard filled his ear. "Oh, Ken... you aren't going to like this."

Why couldn't they catch a break on this thing? "What?"

"Look at 5001. Do you see a headdress?"

Kendall shifted his attention to the adjacent shelf. "Is it supposed to look like a cast-off from Liberace's wardrobe?"

"That's the one. Don't put it on"

"But it goes so well with my red pumps."

"It's been catalogued as 5002. 5001's status registers as terminated. Someone went in and rearranged everything."

Kendall sighed. "So they could cover up the missing inventory. I don't suppose we're lucky enough that they left the access logs?"

"Nothing immediately obvious. But let me see what I can do. I might be able to drag up something useful."

"Thanks, Luce."

What now? The drugs were gone, it was going to be hard to figure out what Dalhousie was doing. Without the context, he doubted that their lab rats would be able to offer much help unless he released her files, and that was probably the fastest way to get yanked right off the case. He'd have to keep exploring the missing-eyeballs angle. If Dalhousie had any interaction with the people Kelly had investigated, he'd find out. Then, hopefully, it would simply be a matter of tracking them down.

 _Right, becuase things always go that smoothly for me._

He headed back upstairs. His feet were definitely heavier than they had been on the way down, and jittery electricity was fired under his skin. Part of it was the case, but if he was honest, most of it was James. This was why he generally chose _not_ to date. If a one-night stand was having this sort of impact, then he could only imagine what dating the guy would be like. No... it'd be better to leave things as they were. He could look back and have some _incredible_ memories and material to fuel future encounters with his right hand.

And if he sort of regretted that his position made having an actual relationship close to impossible well... that was his problem, wasn't it?

* * *

 **Done! So there you have it! Kendall's getting deeper into the case. And he also seems to have it bad for a certain brunet ;)**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, especially Kendall's feelings for James!**

 **Next chapter will be in James' POV, which I'm pretty excited about!**

 **Again, I hope you all enjoyed! Especially you, winterschild11! :)**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	11. Update

**A/N: Hello everyone! I'm sorry to say, but this is not an update. I know that I haven't updated in a while, but between work and school starting back, I've been really busy and haven't had much time to write. I gotten a few reviews and a few PM's asking if I've forgotten about my stories. Specifically, The Deal and Worth It. The good news is, I have started working on chapters for both of these stories! I'm hoping to have them both updated by next week. I just wanted to let you all know what was going on and that I haven't forgotten about these stories :)**

-Epically Obsessed


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Surprise! I'm finally back with a new chapter! I want to thank everyone for being so patient with me. Life has been so busy lately but I've been trying to write in my free time. It took me a while to finish this chapter, but it's finally done! :) I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Shane had sent him an email. It was pretty much the most wonderful thing ever opening his inbox and seeing a message from his brother waiting for him, even if he was totally jealous that Shane had been in Greece for three months.

James grinned and opened the attatched pictures. Shane looked so happy. He'd always wondered who his brother would grow up to be, and it was strange finding out how much they had in common, Shane's bizarre anti-desire to be a vet aside. Every time they spoke, and he was going to get hit with the most ludicrous phone bill ever, it was like an outpouring of every topic he could think of to keep Shane on the phone for a couple minutes longer. He was probably annoying the hell out of Shane's boyfriend.

 _Heh. Boyfriend. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?_

He set one of the pictures as his desktop background and rose. A rare night off (the clinic was closed except for emergency services for the next two days and he was the third downon the on-call list), and he'd planned on heading to Violet Sage to unwind. But he kept finding reasons to put it off. He'd adjusted the heat lamp on Eddie's terrarium three times, changed clothes about as often, checked his email more than he was comfortable admitting-which was good, because he'd caught the email from Shane- and he still didn't really want to go. Any other night and he'd find someplace to hang out, drink more than was strictly necessary and go home with someone warm. So why wasn't he into it tonight?

He cracked his knuckles and stopped himself from moving Eddie's light again for fear of provoking the lizard's wrath. After circling his pathetically small apartment for the fourth time, he finally sat down in the ultra-comfy chair beside Eddie's terrarium. What the fuck was wrong with him?

He wasn't getting old, was he? He shuddered. He'd expected to be one of those distinguished guys who showed up at the club well into his fifties to find pretty guys to entertain him for an evening. It couldn't be losing its appeal already.

He pulled out his phone to play around with a few of his apps, not really paying attention to what he was doing.

 _Maybe I am getting old. Fuck me._

 _Maybe it's because you can't stop thinking of a certain someone whose world you totally rocked and who you can't get off your mind._

That hit a little too close for comfort. He was absolutely not thinking about Kendall. Totally not. He'd already gone over the plethora of reasons why being around the guy was a bad idea. He didn't even know why he was so torn- Kendall was hot, available, screaming for someone to sweep him off his feet and take care of him, saved Shane's life, probably broke like a hundred Society rules to find him and was just totally adorable in a thousand ways- over how they parted. It had been amicable. It had been a nice night, but not one they'd repeat. Like, ever.

Wait, why was he dialing his phone.

A few rings later, a familiar voice picked up on the other end. _"Knight."_

 _Dammit, my subconscious really is out to get me._ "Kendall? It's James. I was wondering if..." _Make it something good. "..._ you... wanted to..." his gaze flew around the room, settling on his DVD shelf. "...watch Star Wars with me?"

 _Star Wars?_ A hundred DVDs on the shelf and he settled on fucking Star Wars? He was never going to get into Kendall's pants ever again.

There was a pause on the other end.

 _Great, I've scared him off with my closet geekery. Go me._

"Which one?"

His heart skipped a beat. _Or not._ "I have all six."

"My favorite is Strikes Back. I can be at my place in about twenty. I'll bring food?"

James' eyes squeezed closed and he grinned, kicking his feet in delight. _I am such a girl._ "You know we can't watch Strikes Back without immediately going to Return, right?"

"We should pace ourselves. Star Wars is serious business. Usually I don't watch them without consuming about five pounds of Skittles and three bottles of Coke."

"I'll grab the junk food. We can pull an all-nighter."

"It's a weeknight." Kendall sounded ridiculously disappointed about the fact, which was so happy-dance-worthy that James almost literally jumped out of his chair. "But maybe we could turn it into a three-part date? Start tonight? End Friday?"

And there was the _D_ word. James didn't really date. He had a long line of broken-hearted lays who could attest to the fact. But Kendall wasn't one of the vapid man-whores who kept trying to get into James' pants. He was different and seemed interested in James the guy instead of James the sex god, if their plans were any indication.

And he... he was okay with that. Surprisingly okay. Becuase for Kendall, James was pretty sure he was willing to try.

"Why don't we start with New Hope in that case? We can watch Luke run around being cute and clueless and drool over pre-potbelly Harrison Ford."

Kendall had an amazing laugh. "Sounds good to me. I'll meet you at my place in about half an hour?"

James glanced at his attire. Leather and chains were good for partying, but if he was going to spend the night curled up with Kendall, someone would lose an eye.

Time to change. Again. IT was like going from Superman back to Clark Kent. Minus the clueless farm-boy thing. James was many things, but clueless wasn't even on the radar. Plus, yeah, makeup was pretty much awesome for the club, but getting it out of the upholstery was a huge pain in the ass so he'd have to strip that off too, because he was not passing up the opportunity to get to know Kendall better. Except for maybe the eyeliner and only because he'd seen Kendall checking it out a VS. And, it really did outstanding things to his eyes. But if he was washing off the _rest_ of his face...

 _Damn._ "Make it an hour?"

"Awesome." He could hear Kendall's grin, and for the life of him, he couldn't wipe his own off his face.

* * *

 **A/N: Done! So there you have it! A pretty short chapter but I hope you all enjoyed it :)**

 **A little fiun fact, the Star Wars bit was inspired by a friend of mine, as well as the whole lizard thing**

 **And I know that a lot of you are waiting for an update of The Deal, and 'm hapy to say that it should be up sometime next week!**

 **But until then, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new chapter! Next chapter, you'll have more Kames! ;)**

 **Until then!**

 **-EpicallyObsessed**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with an update! I've been writing quite a bit this past week so I'm pretty excited for the updates that I have coming up! But before we get to that, I'd like to a huge thank you for everyone's patience! I know that I've been away for a while, but I'm finally getting back into the groove of things!**

 **I've finished a few chapters this past week and also started a few. I have to go through and tweak a few things but other than that, I have chapters that are ready to be posted! So you all can keep an eye out for a few updates this week :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

"Ohh... no, wait… stop...this is a good part."

"No. I've seen far too many beloved movie icons die to want to watch Obi-Wan kick the bucket again. Besides, come on, Ewan McGregor?"

"How dare you? Sir Alec is an institution." If Kendall could have reached one of his pillows, James would be eating it. You did not mock Sir Alec Guinness.

"Well, I can stop if you want, but I was about to do this…"

Kendall gasped under James' onslaught. He had to be part octopus. And that opened the door to a new barrage of mental images that, holy shit, pretty much destroyed his concentration. He vaguely heard Mark Hamill's scream of protest, but the roaring in his ears mostly drowned it out as James pushed him back onto the couch and used his tongue to perform obscene acts on his neck.

Kendall's back arched, pushing their bodies together, and James happily took advantage of it by playing with the warm skin beneath Kendall's shirt. It was getting increasingly hard to breathe. James bit down on the sensitive area beneath Kendall's ear. He groaned and craned his head to plant a messy kiss on James' cheek.

 _Moremoremore…_

"Yeah, baby, I'm right here." James' fingers snuck into Kendall's pants, skimming the top of his boxers and eliciting another sharp intake of breath. Taking advantage of the gasp, he slipped his tongue into Kendall's mouth and kissed the breath out of his lungs.

Kendall's hand squeezed in between them and stroked James' cock through thick denim. James bit down on Kendall's lower lip, teasing the warm flesh as they moved against each other.

 _Bedroombedroombedroom…_

"Yes. Absolutely. Right behind you."

Hallelujah. Choruses of angels. Fireworks. Cannons. And why the hell was his goddamn phone ringing? James froze on top of him and the both looked to where the phone was buzzing on the table beside them. Kendall had never in a thousand years wanted to destroy something as much as he did his phone at that moment.

James licked his neck. "Leave it."

"I can't."

"Come on…"

"Unless you want one hundred pounds of angry assistant kicking in my door and using extremely expensive shoes to crush your testicles, I can't."

James stared at him for a second. Obviously deciding that Kendall wasn't kidding, he rolled off and let Kendall grab his phone. In deference to the joint force of their irritation, Kendall did glare at it for a moment before answering.

"Knight."

"Kendall, I found an indirect connection between Dalhousie and one of Kelly's other cases."

Kendall sighed. "Didn't we have the night off, Luce?"

"Are you claiming that stopped you?"

Oh, great… he wasn't feeling guilty about this or anything. Kendall glanced at James, who winked and headed for the kitchen.

"My manicurist called in sick. I pulled one of Kelly's solved cases and the killer matched the profile of one of Dalhousie's test subjects."

"That's very nice, Luce. But if it's closed…"

"He's currently incarcerated in one of our holding sites. However, the staff has been reporting strange things going on for the past month in and around his cell. One of the doctors will see him on the other side of the hospital, but when they go to check on him he's still in his cell."

"I wouldn't rate that as more than a three on the creepy scale…" He listened with half an ear, watching James' ass as he crossed his apartment. They'd both already consumed indecent amounts of sugar and caffeine and it looked like James was preparing to add another whiskey sour to the mix. Kendall grinned, unable to take his eyes off the other man. This… this was good.

Until it ended.

"Are you listening? When I was trying to access the database, they caught on to me and kicked me out, so I don't have the full details on the holding site. However, it's accessible for anyone with the correct credentials, so I've sent a request to get those ready. It should be about a week or so…"

James opened the freezer to grab the ice tray and looked back at Kendall, lifting his eyebrow. He pulled out a carton of ice cream.

"Gotta go, Luce." He hung up abruptly. He'd pay for that later. "Sorry, but it's not ice cream." He really needed to bring the rest of those back to the office…

James already had the top off one of the cartons Kendall hadn't looked through yet. "Oh? Is it your secret porn stash? I hid mine in the weirdest places when I lived at home."

"Nope. Only work stuff."

"Even this one?" James pulled out one of the baggies and held it up.

 _Huh. This is what a stroke must feel like._ Kendall's heart hammered overtime, and he suddenly felt faint. Why did Kelly have something with his name on it?

"Kendall? You're scaring me." James dropped the ice cream container and leaped over the back of the couch. Wrapping his arms around Kendall, he steadied him.

"Ken?" He was still holding the baggie.

Kendall took it with shaking hands, staring at the words on the front. _M1A-6A/K-Kendall Knight_

"Kendall." James' voice sharpened.

Kendall shook his head to pull himself back together. "I have to…"

"Ken, you're one of their agents. What's the big deal?"

"This isn't an employee file, James. It's a case file. They have a case file on me." He stared at the flash drive. "I think I… I shouldn't read this."

But he had to.

James kissed his forehead. "I can stay."

"I…" He looked up at James, into hazel eyes clouded with genuine concern. "No. I'm okay. I'll… see you later?"

 _Beg him to stay or he might never come back._ He wanted to, so why couldn't he find the words he needed to just fucking _ask_? But his breath stuck in his throat and nothing forced its way past.

James caressed his cheek. "Let me know if you need anything."

Numb, Kendall watched James collect his jacket and make his way out of the apartment. The sound of the door shutting behind him sounded final and damning.

James said to let him know if he needed anything, so why did it all feel like goodbye.

But Kendall didn't have time to dwell on if he had just possibly ruined possibly the best thing that's ever happened to him. Before the bolt of the door caught, Kendall tore open the bag and retrieved the drive.

He was anxious to find out what was on the drive, but he wasn't prepared for what he found.

* * *

 **Done! I know, I'm a horrible person, aren't I? They were so close! And now they're apart again. But for how long? ;)**

 **And yes, I know I left it on a major cliffhanger there, but you will find out what's on the drive next chapter!**

 **But until then, any guesses as to what's on it? Also, I hope you all liked the Kames interaction this chapter! Since there may or may not anymore interaction for a while, if ever :P Again, I know I'm a horrible person.**

 **I'm almost done with the next chapter so it will be up within the next couple of days along with the update for The Deal. I am currently working on getting an update for Haunted to you all then I will work on On Your Side.**

 **That is my plan for this week :) Until then I'd love to hear your thoughts on the questions above as well as the chapter itself.**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with another chapter! This one's a little short but it's to the point. It's also kinda heavy so, prepare yourselves!**

 **A huge thank you to those that read and/or reviewed last chapter! :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

The Society corridors were empty and Kendall barely slowed his step as he took sharp turns at every corner, his body was on fire with what he'd read.

He didn't know what he was expecting to find on the drive, but it certainly wasn't answers to questions that he'd had for years now. He stormed past Matthew, ignoring his squawk of protest, and threw Kevin's office door nearly off its hinges. The man inside sat calmly signing his name to one of the many papers crowding his desk.

"Kendall."

"How could you not tell me?"

Kevin's assistant scurried in, apologies falling from his lips. Kevin waved him off and waited until he'd left and secured the door behind him. "I assume that you found some of Agent Wainwright's personal notes?"

"Why hide it from me? Did you think that if I found out I'd inconvenience you by trying to abuse it?"

"No, I trust your integrity."

"Then why didn't you tell me that you're my damn father?"

Kevin gently placed his pen down on his desk. Folding his hands in front of him, he gazed at Kendall. "I'm not going to offer any excuses or explanations on the subject. I kept the information from you because you didn't need to know."

"I didn't need to know? It was better for me to believe that my father was some drunken asshole who beat my mother?"

"The circumstances surrounding your mother's marriage were unfortunate, but none of it was my doing."

"Like hell it wasn't. You abandoned her in a back-ass town that would have preferred her dead to single and pregnant. I'm lucky she didn't have an 'accident' on a flight of stairs before I was born."

"You weren't suppose to happen in the first place."

The words robbed Kendall's voice and his heart wrenched.

Kevin stood from his desk. All around him, the shadows seemed to move slightly. "When your mother and I got together, a child was not in the cards. It was one of the few rules we had... that _I_ had. The reason being that it was predicted that I would be destroyed by one of my own. You can see why I dislike acknowledging anyone who shares my blood."

"You don't want me? Fine. But what about her? She deserved more."

"Kendall-"

"She was murdered by some drunken redneck because of you! Because you weren't there for her like you should've been!"

Calloused fingers closed on Kendall's throat and threw him against the wall. His throat constricted beneath the fingers cutting off his air supply, the hold tightening until he was sure his neck would bruise. Kevin's eyes, usually slightly glassy and dark, burned into his like coals. The shadows around him seemed to intensify, seemingly in tune with Kevin's anger.

 _No, no, no. This can't be fucking happening._

Kevin's voice deepened. "Your mother was a welcome distraction during a very difficult time for me. In her memory, I have given you more consideration than some of my other children, most of whom died in failed attempts to fulfill the prophecy. I'll even admit to caring for you, maybe even loving you. But do _not_ test me."

He released Kendall a second later and he hit the ground, gasping for air. His eyes burned, the pain and shock of Kevin's words cutting through him worse than the pain in his neck. He hadn't really believed Kelly's entry on the drive at first. He didn't want to believe. It should have been a big fucking lie.

But it wasn't. And now he had to fucking live with… this.

His entire body shook with half-restrained tremors. He was a fucking Society agent. He wasn't going to let himself cry in front of his boss. His _father_.

Kevin waited, as still and silent as a statue. Kendall remained on the floor, trying to wrap his head around Kevin's words.

"Go home, Kendall." He'd never heard the man sound so… cold. So inhuman. But beneath it all, he thought he could detect a hint of guilt.

Kendall braced his arm on the wall and pushed himself up. He didn't, couldn't, meet Kevin's gaze. His legs were stiff and he slowly made his way out of the office.

Matthew, seemingly nervous and worried, ran inside as soon as he'd cleared the doorway.

The hallways passed around him in a series of twists, turns and isolation. He could still feel Kevin's fingers burned into his skin, the outline tracing against his veins and nerve endings like a permanent mark. Kendall stumbled out into the musty air of the parking garage, not quite able to shake the encounter that had just happened.

But as soon as he made it near his car, he stopped in his tracks with his eyes widening in shock, not quite able to believe what he was seeing.

James was leaning against his car, arms crossed. In his rush to see Kevin, Kendall hadn't parked very well, but James looked at home beside Kendall's messed up parking job.

Kendall blinked. _What the hell?_

"I don't…"

James stepped forward with a few long strides and wrapped Kendall in a tight embrace.

"I suddenly realized that when you said you didn't need me to stay, you meant that you did." He kept an arm wound tightly around Kendall and steered him back to the car. "Sorry it took me so long to figure that out. I can be pretty dense sometimes."

Kendall fought his way through the haze in his mind.

"James? Thank you. Thank you so much." Kendall said, trying to get a handle on his emotions, especially since he was pretty sure he had ruined things with the handsome brunet.

James kissed his temple. "You gave me part of my life back, Ken. How could I do any less?"

The words sent bolts of warmth through Kendall's body.

"Come on, we didn't get to finish out date, and if I remember correctly we sort of left the rebels hanging."

* * *

 **Done! Told you things would get intense this chapter. But James was there to save the day! Kind of... :P**

 **So Kevin (AKA Kendall's boss) is Kendall's father. Who saw that coming?! There will be a few more details coming up in upcoming chapters, and needless to say, things will probably be awkward for father and son from here on out.**

 **I'd love hear your thoughts on the big reveal and James being there for Kendall!**

 **I'd also like to hear if you had a favorite moment! Of course, mine was James being there for Kendall when he was down :)**

 **I'm hoping to have the next chapter up within the next couple of days so stay tuned for more!**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with a new chapter! Before we get to that though, as always, I'd like to give a huge thank you to those that read and reviewed last chapter!**

 **This chapter is pretty much nothing but Kames sexy time with a little fluff thrown in at the end, so... read on at your own risk :P**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

James woke up in a nest of blankets, pillows and Kendall. The other man's cheek rested against James' shoulder, his face surprisingly peaceful considering he'd spent the night fighting off bad dreams. James had trespassed a little, taking a peek at a particularly gruesome scene of a man in a stained wife-beater before deciding enough was enough and easing Kendall's mind into something more pleasant.

If Kendall woke up humming radio hits that James heard over the course of the past week, well, that was simply a little side effect. It'd been close to two when he'd finally bundled Kendall up and put him to bed. The rebels had destroyed the Death Star, and Kendall had slowly broken through the consuming depth that had followed his meeting with Kevin.

Not for the first time, James was glad he refused the Society head. Kevin could harp on his powers and obligation to civilization and his responsibility to humanity until the end of the world, and it wouldn't change the fact that James was happy where he was and he was not prepared to put up with the bullshit the agents went through. Poor Kendall.

Freeing himself from the tangle of sheets, he brushed his fingers across Kendall's forehead. He followed his fingers with lips, brief and surprisingly chaste. The way he wanted the other man was getting insane, but that sort of insanity felt terrifyingly good.

Kendall's eyes opened and their gazes locked. When he'd slept, the distance between them hadn't seemed to matter, but now that he was awake, the small distance separating them threw itself into sharp clarity. James searched Kendall's eyes, looking for something. Permission. Need. Acceptance. Desire. He found it all and pushed Kendall down onto the bed to kiss him fiercely.

James could still detect the lingering remnants of Skittles and something bright and sharp that he instinctively knew was Kendall. He cupped Kendall's cheeks, thoroughly exploring the man's mouth with deep sweeps of his tongue. When he finally drew away, Kendall craned his head up and kissed James' throat, the barest touch of lips skimming across sensitive skin. His teeth scraped against James' slight stubble, and the sensation sent sparks tingling through his body. His thoughts were a jumble of want and blissful, incoherent lust.

Kendall bit the juncture between James' neck and shoulder and James pushed him back to kiss him again, his hands running up Kendall's arms and coming to rest on the smooth skin of his chest. He nipped at Kendall's jaw and gasped when Kendall ran his fingers down his back, his short nails dragging into James' skin. The other hand flicked James' nipple ring and- _oh, yes-_ that was the reason he'd gotten it done. Turns out, contrary to popular opinion, it hadn't been a stupid idea.

Kendall's fingers stopped at the waistband of James' boxers, hooking into the material. He rubbed his cheek against James'. "May I?"

"Oh, yeah."

Kendall dragged down his boxers, his thumbnail gently scraping across the sensitive flesh of James' thighs. James mouthed at his neck, lightly at first, but when Kendall's palm brushed against his erection, he was pretty much ready to bury his teeth in the sensitive skin like a sexy glam vampire. He worked the smooth skin, alternately biting and sucking the same spot until he could almost taste the mark forming. Branding his partners wasn't usually something he was into, but it seemed unreasonably appropriate. Kendall encircled his cock and James moaned in appreciation. _Yes, just like that._ He thrust experimentally, half-purring as Kendall's fingers rolled against the heated skin.

James pushed himself onto his elbows, Kendall's chest screaming for attention. His fingers trailed to Kendall's nipples, the hard buds jumping to attention at the barest stroke. He rolled the flesh between his fingertips. A blush curled up from Kendall's neck towards his face. James couldn't really help kissing and tasting the man who was beginning to pant and writhe for him.

Kendall's hips bucked up, needy and wanting and real, and James adjusted to fit his knee between Kendall's legs, giving him something to grind against as he continued working James' cock.

"I…" James managed to gasp between the lengthy strokes that Kendall had started experimenting with. "...am going to fuck you so hard that you will be paralyzed from the waist down."

"Promises, promises."

James growled-like, a literal fucking growl and where the hell did sounds like that even come from?-and bit down on the mark he'd formed on Kendall's neck. Kendall groaned and James slipped away to flip him over. He mouthed at the other man's neck, alternating between lips and teeth as he trailed caresses up and down the sides of Kendall's body, exploring every inch of skin. Kendall craned his neck, silently begging for kisses. James obliged, as thoroughly and enthusiastically as he could.

""Stuff?" Weird, he could still articulate the English language.

"Table." Kendall gasped.

James struggled with the small top drawer of a bedside table currently holding a stack of worn paperbacks, so totally not in the mood to fight with a piece of plywood- deciding that if it wasn't open in five seconds, he was going to tear it apart with his mind- but finally managed to pop it open. Lube. Condoms. Handcuffs?

"We are going to play with these later." James promised before dropping the rest onto the bed and sliding down between Kendall's spread legs. Kendall jumped. _All right, slowing down. Just a little, because who knows how long it's been since Kendall's been properly fucked?_ He slipped his fingers into the elastic waistband of Kendall's boxer briefs and eased the underwear off.

"I can still feel my toes." Kendall told him.

James chuckled. "Babe, we haven't even started yet." He coated two of his fingers with lube, allowing a few cool drops to fall into the tempting crevice of Kendall's ass, enjoying the sudden squirm of the man beneath him. He continued his ministrations to Kendall's neck as his fingers danced across the puckered surface of Kendall's tight entrance.

"You know what I like?" James slid the very tip of his middle finger past the ring of muscles. "I like seeing you sweat." Sure enough, Kendall was tighter than a Catholic virgin. "And I like the sound of you panting for me." Deeper, rhythmic explorations of Kendall's tight heat.

James wasn't about to brag-well, not aloud, anyway-but he was a sizable guy. And if Kendall wasn't prepared...well… pain could be fun in the bedroom, but only if it was intentional.

And yes, definitely something to explore later.

Kendall slowly opened up for him, becoming more and more incoherent each second. James waited until he'd gotten two fingers deep inside him and Kendall was moving against his hand, practically begging before James finally pulled away and grabbed a condom.

 _Wantwantwantwant._

"Yeah baby, me too." James said, Kendall's thoughts leaking from the intense lust he was feeling. James kissed the top of Kendall's spine. "You ready?"

Kendall made an obvious effort to stumble up from the unfocused headspace he'd fallen into. "Please."

James kissed him again. With aching patience, he gently slid into Kendall's body. Kendall tensed, a small breath caught in his throat as he struggled to adjust. James stopped before he was fully inside, waiting for Kendall to adjust to his presence and _fuck_ , he deserved a medal or something because Kendall felt so good…

A few heartbeats later, Kendall nodded. "I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Please...I...I want more."

"You've got it, baby." Every nerve ending came alive as he carefully slid the rest of the way into Kendall's amazing body. Colorful electricity danced behind his eyes. Kendall was so damn perfect. Still, he held on. _Give him a minute to get used to it._

"Now, Jay." Kendall pushed back, his entire body shivering with need.

And really, _really_ , could any sane member of their species resist Kendall's voice when it sounded like that? James pulled back enough to make it count and then thrust forward. Kendall's entire body arched and he grabbed the headboard as James brought them both nearly off the bed with the force. He lost himself in the sensation of Kendall, so overcome with the oh-high-holy-hell-awesomeness of it that his eyes nearly crossed. He rested his hand against Kendall's where it wrapped around one of the posts on the bedframe, intertwining their fingers together, and quickened their pace. Both points of contact between them burned as the friction of their bodies heated the entire room. Kendall dragged in heavy breaths, coming apart beneath him.

And it wasn't enough.

Grabbing Kendall under the hips, James lifted them both into a kneeling position. Kendall's other hand swung up to hold onto the headboard, and James suddenly wanted to hold that too. He wanted everything Kendall would give him. More than that. He wanted Kendall.

With the new angle and a careful shift of his hips, he was suddenly hitting Kendall's prostate and he got the first chance to really hear his lover scream. The sound curled out of his lungs in a ragged expulsion of breath, reverberating down James' spine and driving him deeper. Hitting the magic spot again and again, he unraveled, losing his mind with every jerk and twist of their hips. And hot. So hot. They were both drenched in sweat, and James was unable to help licking a line up the arch of Kendall's back, stopping at the same spot he had marked earlier. He was getting so fucking close… His balls tightened almost painfully. He wasn't going to last much longer.

He released one of Kendall's hands and fisted his cock. The hot flesh jumped under his touch, precome immediately drenching his fingers. Good. Because he was going to come and fuck the world if Kendall wasn't coming with him.

"Ready?"

Kendall groaned. Good enough. Tensing his fingers, he stroked Kendall's cock in time with his hips for a few seconds before Kendall let loose a hoarse cry and spilled into the palm of his hand. The muscles in his body tightened up by about a million points, squeezing James with exquisite perfection and drawing out his own climax. He shot into Kendall's body, crying out the other man's name. A few more thrusts and finally he could breathe again.

They stayed frozen until James' knees suddenly reminded him they were still both attached and very displeased. His cock was softening inside Kendall and he carefully slid out. Kendall groaned at the loss and as one they both dropped to the bed.

James pulled Kendall into his arms in a sticky yet satisfying embrace. Their heavy breaths filled the quiet room and Kendall idly stroked the outlines of James' tattoos, as if noticing them for the first time. He usually kept them covered, they really weren't anyone's business but his. But his skin sparked and danced under Kendall's care as he explored the outlines of the elegant tribal markings.

"That was…"

"Yeah."

"I never…"

"I know."

James kissed Kendall's throat. There was a dark bruise forming where he'd bitten down, and he hoped Kendall owned a few high neck shirts. Or a collar. Now, _that_ would be a sight to see. He chuckled and kissed the abused skin.

Carefully removing the condom, he tied it off and threw it in the general direction of the garbage can across the room.

"I think you broke me." Kendall said.

"The best cure for that is staying in bed all day."

"That would be amazing." His eyes darted to the clock beside the bed. "But I can't."

"Too bad. At least we've got Strikes Back to look forward to tonight."

"Yeah." Some of the lazy satiation slipped away from Kendall's body. "I have a new appreciation for what Luke went through."

James kissed him again. "I know, babe." He'd seen enough in Kendall's mind to figure out what was going on. "But Luke didn't go through it alone and neither will you."

Kendall's smile was bright enough to light up the entire room. "You know, when I tracked you down at Violet Sage, I wasn't banking on this." He waved, the simple gesture encompassing everything from the Skittles to Star Wars to the lingering scent of sex and sweat.

James kissed him again. "I was."

Kendall laughed. "You make lying so sexy." He rose from the sweat-dampened sheets. "I've gotta jump into the shower."

James watched him cross to the adjoining bathroom. His thoughts drifted, but didn't go far.

 _Was I lying?_

The shower started up. With a grin, James slid out of bed and made his way to the shower.

Kendall was already late anyway.

* * *

 **Done! Like I said, pretty much just a smut filed chapter, but you get to see a little bit of how deep and quickly James and Kendall are falling for each other, whether they realize it or not.**

 **Again, I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I'd love to hear your thoughts on it, especially your thoughts on Kames! :)**

 **By the way, sorry for any typos, I wrote the majority of this on my tablet.**

 **I'm hoping to get an update of The Deal to you all sometime tomorrow! With another update of this story coming sometime next week. I'm also still working on getting updates of Haunted and On Your Side to you all. I'm hoping to have them updated within a couple weeks. I am also about halfway done with the first chapter of my original story that will be posted on Wattpad! I want it to be a good one so I'm kinda taking my time with it. But I'm hoping to get that story up and running next month, June at the latest! :)**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with a new chapter! This chapter might be a little confusing, but bare with me. I promise things will start making more sense as the story goes on!**

 **I'd like to thank those that are still reading and reviewing this story so far! I know that this story is very different from what I usually write but I'm thankful for you all allowing me to try something different and supporting me :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

Arriving at work was usually calming. Usually. He had his choice parking spot from which he could actually see the door. One of the fringe benefits of having the highest solve rate was not having to park on the lower level of the garage among the zombies and mutant sewer alligators.

More often than not, the vending machines lining the hallway leading from the garage yielded something resembling breakfast, mostly because the cafeteria was too far some mornings. The Society, for all the time he spent there, was home.

And for the first time since he'd started as an agent, it felt like getting back from school and facing his father. Dread coiled in his stomach every time he turned a corner and half expected Kevin to be waiting there.

And what could they even fucking say to each other at this point? He'd probably shoot off at the mouth and end up with bruises on top of bruises, and he'd be even more pissed off at himself for having said a damn thing in the first place. What was he expecting anyway? To have one of the most difficult, anti-social men in the universe open his arms and say "Glad you found out, sport, let's go catch the Yankees?"

Each corner was the same until his nerves were close to shattering and he was ready to turn tail, run and hide under his bed until the world made sense again. He didn't feel up to facing Kevin. In fact, he didn't really feel up to ever facing him again. He wanted to come in, do his job (and be damn good at it), and then go back to his apartment. In his ideal fantasy world James would be waiting inside.

He passed a blackened window into one of the many offices lining the hallways and paused. He'd expected to look tired. Worn out. Instead, he looked pretty well-rested. And how had he not noticed the absurd smile on his face before now? James had done some crazy magic with a bottle of Clinique that'd hidden the lingering marks on Kendall's throat.

James. It had to be James. And if that didn't just lighten up his morning. He took a sip of his coffee and continued toward his office. Fuck Kevin and the Yankees. Kendall was more of a hockey fan anyway. He could do this. And if Kevin wanted to just ignore whatever genetic tie existed between them, then Kendall could do that too.

The next corner went unnoticed

Keenly aware that he was whistling when he got in, Kendall placed the second coffee cup on Lucy's desk and dropped into his own chair.

Bad idea. He tried not to wince. Lucy was peering at him far too closely.

"I was about to call the search party. I'm never here earlier than you are."

Kendall shrugged and took a sip of his drink. "I just couldn't get out of bed this morning." _Chew on that, Stone._ From the look on her face, she was going to. "Tell me about the guy you found out about last night."

Her eyes narrowed, as if she were silently debating calling him out on the sly grin still sitting on his face. But whether or not she'd permanently dropped the subject, she did launch into the briefing.

"Five years ago, local authorities responded to a domestic disturbance and discovered the body of Kate Patterson." Lucy passed him a picture. The woman had been pretty in an odd sort of way. "Her husband was conspicuously absent, which obviously struck the police as odd."

"So get to the part where the Society gets involved. Last time I checked, we didn't investigate mundane crimes."

"Oh, I'm getting there. Mr. Blake Patterson was a former Society employee."

That caught Kendall's attention. "Do tell."

"Mr. Patterson was an Omega-level personnel." Lucy offered him another folder. "Didn't even make it to janitor. He pretty much just changed the coffee filters."

"Let me guess, the coffee filters happened to belong to a certain maniacal doctor."

"You catch on fast. Dalhousie admitted him under Patient Number... 56. They've censored most of the info, but I did get some details. Nothing about what she was trying to do. She keeps referencing experiment logs we don't have. If I had to take a guess, I'd say they were either destroyed or buried somewhere in the Archive."

What had Kelly's account said? _Books burned, papers destroyed and scattered. Thousands of years of information threatened as a means of controlling the archivists..._

"When we found out there was a Society employee involved, we intervened to prevent any chance of him disclosing confidential information, and it was assigned to Internal. Kelly took the case. When she showed up, he attacked her, screaming that he knew who she was and what she could do."

"So another disgruntled employee laid off during the restructuring." Like all the others he read about last night. "Seems pretty open and shut."

"Kelly thought so too. They declared him crazy and sent him to one of our 'retreats'. His doctors diagnosed a laundry list of mental disorders. But like I said last night, there's been weird shit going on at the hospital."

"And doctors suspect something going on?"

"Looks like it. They requested an agent come out and conduct a proper investigation. The request has been under review for the past four months but the call center staff tagged it as insignificant and we haven't had any of our new-hire groups assigned to take it on."

Kendall grinned. "Let's go give them a hand, shall we?"

"I've put in a request for access. Typically, it takes about a week, but I'm trying to get it expedited by filing it under assignment status. Unfortunately, it means we'll have to add it to our pending as an active file."

"Score. Closing both would totally boost up our solve rate and put us up over 95%. In the meantime, let's recalibrate on Dalhousie's history with the Society. I've read through some of her reports. In each one, she makes it seem like she's pandering to someone higher up. What do we know about the structure of our Research and Development team at the time?"

Lucy adjusted her screen so he could see it. "Details are kinda sketchy. A lot of stuff got destroyed during Kevin's takeover."

"Mostly by people scrabbling to save their reputations I imagine."

"Yeah." Lucy responded, entering a few quick keystrokes. I'll start with Dalhousie, even though most of her stuff's expunged or censored for those without proper access credentials."

Like that would even faze Lucy. She barely blinked when it came to security protocols. Entering a boatload of quick commands, the rest of the fields populated automatically. She gradually scrolled down the page, giving Kendall a chance to skim the information. He'd seen much of it in what he'd gotten from Kelly's notes, but there'd been a few key points missing.

"Blah, blah, blah... date of birth, background, employment history... _there_. Stop. Performance evaluation."

Lucy clicked the link. "They're all entered by someone up in HR."

"That makes sense I guess. Dalhousie was coordinating benefits stuff in admin hell for _years_ after they closed down her lab." Kendall furrowed his brow. "Why didn't we retire her? We gave everyone else who'd been even a little bit evil a solid pension and a brain wipe. And she was the satanic doctor from a bad B-movie. Who made the absolutely idiotic decision to keep her on?" He asked before taking a sip of his coffee.

"Aidan Turner."

And spat it out on Lucy's screen. "What?!"

Lucy's nose wrinkled in disgust. This was the reason she'd started keeping paper towels in her desk drawer. Of course, in this situation, a spit take was totally justifiable. What did their VP of International Liaising have to do with a mad scientist? How had he even gotten involved?

She smacked him in the chest with a roll of Bounty and waited for him to clean up.

Finally, when the screen was clean to her level of satisfaction, she continued.

"It says right here. Aidan Turner did an evaluation after Kevin shut down her department. He recommended she be kept on board because of her 'encyclopedic knowledge of paranormal abilities.'"

Kendall stared at the screen in disbelief. "Turner is one of the most powerful men in the Society. Even before Kevin took over, he was one of the original members of the Society."

"He was also one of the few that stayed on after the original Society leaders death. Kevin wouldn't have kept him on if he wasn't trustworthy."

"But why would he personally get involved in Dalhousie's case? If I'd barely avoided being retired and 'reeducated' after Kevin took over, I wouldn't make any waves by saving the skin of some crazy death-camp scientist."

After several minutes of listening to the sound of his own breathing as he tried to rid himself of the pressing anxiety in his chest, he finally took a deep breath.

"Here's the plan. I want you to set up a meeting with Turner. We need to know why the hell he kept Dalhousie on staff."

"Kendall, this is Aidan Turner we're talking about. He doesn't make time in his schedule for you. You ask if you can see him and then show up exactly when he tells you to."

When Kendall didn't respond, Lucy let out a sigh.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

Kendall nodded hesitantly. "Me too."

* * *

 **Done! It looks like the plot is thickening and that Kendall and Lucy may have just found another lead! Again, I know this might be a little confusing, but things will make more sense as the story goes on!**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as if you happened to have a favorite part :)**

 **James may or may not be back next chapter so there's that to look forward to ;)**

 **It should be up sometime this weekend so until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I know that it's been a little while since I've updated this story, but I'm back with a new chapter!**

 **Before we get to the new chapter, as always, I would like to thank those of you that read and reviewed last chapter! :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

"How will I recognize him?" James had asked that question about fifty times since they'd arrived at JFK. He'd entered the bouncing portion of his cycle again.

"You guys practically look the same, you'll recognize him." Kendall said again, knowing that it was just James' nerves talking.

Kendall shifted his gaze between James and the gate.

The flight had registered as Arrived about twenty minutes ago but customs could be a bitch to get through, especially after such a long time overseas. He'd agreed to drive James to the airport because staring at fucked-up research files was meeting with his head and Turner's office still hadn't gotten back to him on his request for an appointment. And, honestly, he'd sort of come to the conclusion that as soon as James saw Shane, he was going to forget Kendall even existed, and he really wanted to wring out whatever last few minutes he could get with the other man. Even if it meant battling with a sociopathic soccer mom over the last spot in the parking lot within a mile of the Arrival's entrance.

James cycled through bouncing to pacing and back to leaning when the gates finally opened and the first few passengers trickled out. Shane had flown first class, so Kendall imagined he'd be among the first through. James straightened up, watching the passengers with rapt attention. After spitting out a few super tanned women, a lone business man and an elderly couple nattering at each other in Greek, a familiar face finally appeared.

Shane looked exceptionally good. Along with his new tribal tattoo's on his right arm, his sun-kissed skin seemed to have darkened even further. Straight back from vacation, Shane should've looked more relaxed but he seemed as keyed-up as he had when he'd first escaped Dalhousie's clutches. His eyes roamed the airport, finally settling on James.

James froze. "What do I do?"

Kendall squeezed James' elbow gently. He didn't need to answer.

The brothers launched themselves forward at the same time. Flying across the slick white-tiled floors, they crashed into each other, arms flailing everywhere as they tried to figure out the best way to fit their bodies together in a tight embrace. They finally managed, Shane's heavy looking canvas bag hitting the ground with a thud Kendall heard even from where he was standing.

A grin spilled out across Kendall's face and he waited patiently as the brothers held each other for the first time in over a decade. James' eyes lit up as he pulled back and took in Shane's appearance in a few sweeping gestures. Shane was smiling so hard that it probably hurt and tears pooled in his eyes like crazy.

 _This is what a family looks like._ Kendall's smile faded slightly. Why did it kinda feel like a punch in the gut?

Maybe he should have stayed back at HQ. He could've been doing something to keep the case moving forward. But it was getting harder to resist James. A lot harder.

Not that it would be a problem much longer. What had James said at their first meeting about needing to get Kendall out of his system? Well, he'd had plenty of time, and with Shane's return he'd have better things to occupy his attention.

Kendall blinked and straightened as they headed his way.

Somehow, he hadn't actually envisioned Shane talking to him, the fact that he was probably their ride home notwithstanding. And they were looking at him now. Shane didn't look particularly surprised to see him. Wasn't that interesting?

"Agent Knight!" Shane said enthusiastically. It had to be a bleed-off from his reunion with his brother, Kendall thought.

Kendall mustered up the most genuine smile he could manage. "Shane. It's good to see you again." Shit, how did people make small talk? "Did you have a good time?" _Laaaaaaaame._

Shane didn't seem fazed though. "It was outstanding! Especially the beaches." He scratched at his wrist and for the first time, Kendall noticed the small scars on the skin. Deep grooves, scratches, were spaced far enough apart that fingernails could've caused them, hidden by his tattoos and tanline.

Kendall's phone rang and he jumped. "Sorry, I have to.." He trailed off as he strode away, placing some distance between himself and the brothers before answering. "Knight."

"We have an interview with Turner in an hour. Where are you?"

Kendall glanced over his shoulder. "You're not giving me a whole lot of notice here, Luce."

"If you're not going to be here-"

"Did I say that?"

Maybe it was for the best. An easy goodbye. James and Shane likely had a thousand things they needed to say to each other. And Kendall didn't want to be the awkward plus one who had to be looped in on every joke and ancient memory. And at the end of the day, he didn't really think there were any Kendall-shaped holes in their lives.

"I'll be there." He said before ending the call and sliding his phone back into his pocket. As expected, Shane and James were deep in discussion. They barely looked up at his approach.

"Bad news, I'm afraid. I have a few things that I have to attend to back at HQ. Sorry I can't see you home." He shifted his gaze to Shane. "But I'm glad that I was here to make sure James was delivered as promised."

James raised an eyebrow. "I didn't realize I was such a hot commodity."

 _Yes, you did._ Kendall thought, not saying it out loud.

"Thank you. Thank you so much Kendall." Shane grinned ear-to-ear, dancing in place when he offered Kendall his hand.

Kendall shook it solidly before his gaze drifted to James. "It was really good knowing you, James."

James' gaze shifted between slightly confused and thoughtful. "That sounds awfully final..."

 _Don't draw it out._ "Goodbye." Kendall forced himself to sound cheery.

He was acutely aware of James' eyes on his back as he fought his way though the throng of people crowding the area around him. It sucked. He'd so desperately wanted to have more time with James. But he'd followed through on his promise to Shane to recover James and safely return him. And now Jay would have more on his mind than the Society agent to whom he'd thrown a couple amazing pity-fucks.

But he'd left Kendall with some good memories. And good memories went a long way when you didn't have very many.

 **Done! So yeah, that just happened...**

 **James and Shane are finally reunited, but it looks like this might possibly be the end of Kames...**

 **I would love to hear your thoughts on the new chapter, specifically your thoughts on the JamesxShane reunion and of course, Kames! I'd also like to hear if you had a favorite moment. Personally, mine was the JamesxShane reunion :)**

 **I'm hoping to have the next chapter up by next week so until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I know that it's been a while since I've updated this story, but I'm back with another update! This story is one of the most difficult stories only becuase there's so much to keep up with but I think it's coming together nicely! I've never done a real mystery story before and I actually think that my next story might be another mystery story :)**

 **Anyways, I know that you all are waiting to see what happens with Kames, if anything, but there really isn't any mention of Kames in this chapter. Despite that, I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Aidan Turner was in his late fifties with salty gray hair that had likely been brown in his younger years. Lines- Kendall wouldn't call them laugh lines since anything besides a slightly stoney downturn of the lips would have looked out of place-framed his high forehead and stiff widow's peak. Glasses sat at the end of his nose, the expensive frames complementing his designer suit.

"Agent Knight." Turner's voice still held a touch of a soft accent. "Please, sit." He waved Kendall into the lone leather chair across the oak desk. "Your request was somewhat vague, so I hope twenty minutes will be enough time. It's really all I can spare at the moment."

"Yeah, no problem." Kendall grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. "Do you mind if I record our meeting?"

"I suppose not."

"Thanks." He set his phone down on the desk between them, carefully sliding his fingers along the surface to enable the audio settings. "Internal Case MI-622. It's currently the thirtieth of June, and Mr. Turner has consented to an interview regarding his involvement with a few members of our Research Department during the restructuring."

Turner raised an eyebrow. "Is that what I've done."

"Yes. I apologize. We probably could've been clearer in our request."

"That would have been appreciated, Agent Knight."

"Mr. Turner, we're looking into the death of one of the Society's Internal agents. She was murdered during the course of her investigation into the actions of Dr. Dalhousie." Kendall watched Turner for any sign of recognition. Some minor familiarity flashed through his eyes, but that was it. "As we've come to understand, you were the one who authorized her reassignment instead of her retirement after the restructuring. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Could you please elaborate on the circumstances behind that?"

"Certainly. Dr. Dalhousie was one of the most promising minds we had on staff. At the time, we had lost so many of our brightest employees to the reorganization that I felt it would be a crime to let her go."

"Even though the methods she had used in her research had resulted in the deaths of numerous subjects?"

"Those were direct orders from her superiors and ones that she claims to have followed in fear of her own life. Surely your investigation has uncovered who she reported to?"

Oh, this couldn't be good. "No, it hasn't."

"Ah. Well, allow me to enlighten you. The entirety of our Research department at that point in time directly reported to Charles Metzgern."

Kendall's blood ran cold. He swallowed his shock, fighting to keep his face stoic and unaffected "You're serious?" Charles Metzgern. One of the departments top scientists. And possibly the most evil man to have ever walked the Society's corridors.

"Indeed. Can you appreciate the atmosphere that must have existed among those who worked under him?"

No. It wasn't something he could appreciate, because it was the sort of things nightmares were made of. The man had single-handedly fucked up the Society's relationship with practically every nonhuman community on the planet. He tortured innocents. He destroyed lives. And he was responsible for the deaths of thousands.

How much did this change? Did it change anything?

Dalhousie's involvement with Metzgern at least explained why she'd played so fast and loose with people's lives. But it didn't explain why Turner had covered for her. If anything, it raised more questions. Because Kendall couldn't understand why anyone would have stuck up for one of Metzgern's people, considering the horrifying things they'd done in the name of science and 'human progress.'

He needed more on Turner's motives. "If you were so concerned about losing such a 'promising mind,' why assign her to administration duties? Wouldn't she have been better suited for a role in our Archives? Or even keeping her in Research with aggressive protocols in place to make sure that her past behavior was truly a matter of orders?" Because he'd spent time in Dalhousie's company, and quite frankly it was a bit of a stretch.

"My intention was to allow her to continue in our Research Department. When the restructuring occurred, the remaining members of the senior leadership teams determined that Dalhousie was unstable." Turner gesturing to his head. "Mentally. And was overdue for something less psychologically taxing. She was assigned to HR for a temporary change in duties to allow her to recover her skills."

"And how did you react when you found out she'd secretly continued her experiments in a remote location that was logged as destroyed?"

"I hadn't anticipated it and obviously it was quite a blow. It was hard to reconcile how she'd allowed her personal feelings to interfere with her responsibilities." Turner slid back in his chair, watching Kendall across the desk. His gaze turned more than a little predatory. "Needless to say we were very disappointed."

"Disappointed? Mr. Turner, do you understand the scope of what she did to her patients? We can't find any evidence that any of the one hundred and twenty-eight people walked out of there under their own volition. In fact, we've only identified three who walked out at all. And you're saying you're disappointed?"

"How would you prefer that I respond, Agent Knight? Crushing guilt over a bad judgement call? Quite frankly, I don't think that my decisions were all that ill-advised. Dalhousie was a brilliant doctor, and despite how things turned out, I believe that she could have made great contributions to the Society. Ones that would have changed everything."

All Kendall could think about were Shane, the grisly reports he'd been wading through, and the families of the people she'd used. His voice lowered angrily. "In four years, she may have murdered over a hundred people. You're the one who made the decision that allowed her to do it. And you feel no guilt whatsoever?"

"I did my job."

He was dodging. "Is there anything I need to know about your involvement with her, Mr. Turner?"

The temperature between them plummeted. "What are you implying?"

"I want to know if there was more about your decision to keep her on board after she'd committed so many atrocities against the people the Society was supposed to be protecting."

Turner paused, scowling at Kendall over the rim of his glasses. "You see, Agent Knight, this is the problem with your generation. Before Kevin assumed control of the Society, we didn't consider those subjects you're referring to as 'people.' Those of you who came in afterward are such valiant young heroes... you don't understand the context. Before Kevin, there were very clear lines of black and white, and everything Dalhousie did was solidly white."

Fuck context. What Metzgern had done was inexcusable. According to him, nonhumans-people like Shane, James, and even Kendall himself- weren't people. They were monsters. And Kevin coming aboard had changed that and gotten the Society on track to become the organization it was today. But if Kevin hadn't snuck in under the guise of being a human, nonhumans would still he shuffled off and experimented on and probably dissected. Kevin and his friends fought hard and died in order for the Society to get back on track. And Turner was treating it like a history lesson?

"And Charles Metzgern? Were his actions 'solidly within the white' too?"

"Yes. Do we look back with shame and regret? I imagine some of us do. But then, I believe there are much more constructive things we could be doing with our time. Those are pursuits to which I've dedicated my life."

"Such as?"

"Such as ensuring that the Society has competent leadership."

"So you conveniently forgot about Dalhousie instead of following up after a few years to see if she was still batshit crazy?"

"Agent Knight, please. There's no need for vulgarity. I never forgot about Dr. Dalhousie. But despite my best intentions, the situation in the Society was never reasonable enough to allow her return. There are many people who still look on our organization with fear and discomfort, due largely to the way the former head of Society dealt with the paranormal community. There was no way for me to bring her back on board, and so I put her where I thought was the best place for her."

"Did you have any idea that she was continuing her experiments?"

"Do you think I would have let it continue, had I known?"

"That's not an answer."

"The question is a direct attack on my integrity." Turner stood. "This conversation is over, Agent Knight."

"Fine. Thank you for your time, Mr. Turner." Yeah, that sounded sincere. Kendall picked up his phone. "And believe me, if I have any more questions, I'll be back."

"No, you won't. You may direct any further inquires to my secretary or else have Kevin himself come up here to talk to me. Quite frankly, I think he's become so invested in his own personal projects that he's neglected to remember how taxing running this organization can be."

"I'll make sure he gets the message."

"I'm sure you will."

The palpable tension in the air weighed down on him even after the door had closed on his back. He took a deep breath. rocked a grin and winning boyish charm for the benefit of Turner's secretary, and gestured for Lucy to follow him. Their trip back down the hallway was silent, but as soon as they stepped into the elevator, Kendall released a long breath he hadn't even realized he'd been holding.

"Fuck."

"So... are you going to tell me what the hell happened in there?" Lucy asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He's definitely hiding something. Talking to him reminded me of talking to Dalhousie when I first interviewed her. Evasion, evasion, evasion. He knew exactly what to say to piss me off anf avoid directly answering my questions, I _hate_ it when people think they can play me like that." Kendall rested his shoulder against the side of the elevator. "I did get some interesting tidbits out of him though."

"Oh? Such as?"

Kendall hit Stop on the elevator. He didn't want anyone interrupting the conversation. "Such as Dalhousie's involvement with Charles Metzgern."

Lucy opened and closed her mouth a few times, shook her head and slumped against the side of the elevator. "What are we going to do about this?"

Kendall didn't answer right away. Between Turner and Metzgern, this case was going deep. Too deep. Right into the Society's skeleton filled closet. There'd been an office rumor going around since before Kendall had become an agent. Apparently, every agent who'd ever investigated Metzgern's antics turned up dead or insane. He was their boogeyman, waiting for unsuspecting men and women to stumble across the landmines he'd left littered behind him. If Kendall kept digging, he might be the one to prove whether it was true or not.

"We're going to need to talk to him."

Lucy stiffened. "Are you insane?"

"Do you doubt it?"

"The man was the Society equivalent of a Nazi death-camp doctor, and you want to talk to him?"

"No. I don't want to talk to him. I need to." Kendall braced his arms against his desk and leaned over. "He'll know better than anyone what Dalhousie was up to. If someone was legitimately after her research, or was the one who stopped Kelly from finding out about it, he'll be the one who knows."

Lucy stared at him. "He'll be over eighty years old by now. Do you think he'll remember?"

"Doesn't matter. If I ask the right questions, he'll have to answer them." He responded. "How long will it take you to arrange it?"

Lucy gave him a torn look. He didn't blame her. She was probably debating with herself between following his orders and calling him out on the most phenomenally stupid idea he'd ever had.

"Ken, this isn't a request that you simply forward to administration. It's going to have to go directly to Kevin. And even knowing that he personally asked you to investigate this case, he's not going to be thrilled with the idea of you talking to that sicko."

"Then he can bring it up with me. Find out what we have to do to get that ball rolling. In the meantime I'm going to follow up on that hospital visit we talked about. Turner's not going to let anything slip and we're not going to be able to pursue him until we have something concrete against him."

And he had a feeling that it would be a cold day in hell before Turner let anything concrete escape his control.

* * *

 **Done! So yeah, things are getting pretty intense and complicated.**

 **Again, I hope you all are enjoying the story!**

 **I'd really love to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as the story as a whole so far! I hope you all are enjoying it. I would also love to hear your thoughts on me possibly doing another mystery story! And if I did, what would you all like to see in it?**

 **I'm going to try and update this story again by next weekend at the latest. I'm also hoping to have the final chapter of The Deal finished by then as well as an update for On Your Side.**

 **Until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: Hello everyone! It's been forever since I've updated this story. I was originally going to update 'On Your Side' this weekend, but after seeing that this story was in the lead in my new poll, I figured now would be a good time to update it :)**

 **I know that it's been a while, and that this is one of my more confusing stories, but things will start getting pieced together soon ;)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"Mr. Patterson, could you tell me under what circumstances you came to know Dr. Dalhousie?" Kendall had interviewed the criminally insane before, he _worked_ with more than his fair share, but Blake Patterson's insistence on speaking circles and obscure metaphors was testing the boundaries of his patience. He'd asked the same five questions a dozen different ways and was no closer to his answers than when he'd arrived this morning.

"The doctor? The good doctor. My real doctor. She found us, took us in. The place we were in before was bad. Not as pleasant as this one."

Like bashing his head against the wall. "Do you remember what she was trying to do?"

"Lightning in a bottle, trapped and ready to escape. I was the bottle, you see. And he was the lightning."

"Who was?"

"Him. My mirror-self."

The doctor lifted a sheet of paper to hide them, as if that would stop Blake from overhearing them.

"Mr. Patterson suffers from delusional and dissociative identity disorders. He has been referring to his 'mirror-self' since he was admitted."

Blake's eyes were unfocused, staring at the small window that looked into the room. For a second, Kendall thought he saw someone on the other side, but the shadowy figure disappeared when he blinked. _Great. They'll be locking me up next._

The doctors believed there was no hope of returning Blake to true coherency, and the Society was committed to keeping him in the facility as long as needed to make sure he never hurt another person. Whether it was the best move was irrelevant, it was the most humane one. And the Society prided itself on its humanity. Ironic, considering most of the staff were freaks.

He glanced at Blake's patient profile. Despite the fact that he'd been incarcerated for well over five years, they didn't really have much on him. _Mid-fifties, Caucasian, no tattoos, one scar indicative of childhood trauma running along the right-hand side of his torso._ Beyond that, the attending psychologists had only garnered basic observations since they'd admitted him.

Maybe it was time to try a different tactic.

"Can you tell me about your mirror-self, Mr. Patterson?"

"He had always been there. Always. Looking at me through the glass."

"Is he the one who murdered Kate?"

Blake's eye came into chilling focus. "Yes."

Creepier and creepier. There was such conviction there… would he really get anything else out of the man?

"Thank you, Mr. Patterson."

Kendall stood and allowed the doctor to usher him out of the room. The hallways were brightly lit and welcoming. The Society had purchased the hospital from a private owner and renovated it until it met their standards for safety and cleanliness. If they ever shuffled him into a loony bin, possibly as a result of this case, he hoped it was as nice as this one. The doctor, a blond in his early forties, followed him toward the hospital's front door.

"You reported strange phenomena in connection to Mr. Patterson?"

"Yes. We've had our fair share of strangeness come through our doors over the years. Psychics driven mad by others around them. Vampires who haven't properly fed. Werewolves who can't stomach raw flesh. My staff is generally amazing. But occasionally we get a case that sets us somewhat on edge. Like his. We've had reports of him outside of his room on the other side of the property while another member of the staff is observing him. Others have seen him in the kitchen after hours wandering the corridors at night. All very… spooky."

"What do you think it is?"

"In any other case I'd say he has the ability to psychically project himself outside of his body. That being said, he's very set in his habits and many of the times he's been observed are outside his usual behavior."

"But wouldn't dissociative identity disorder support him traveling outside his comfort zone?"

"Perhaps. In a unique case. One my staff and I are very invested in."

"Why not slap a muting bracelet on him and see if the weird shit-o-meter goes down by a few notches?"

"Muting bracelets increase the chances of detrimental health effects over a long period of time. I couldn't possibly subject one of my patients to that."

"It doesn't have to be long term. One week and you should be able to tell if that's what's going on."

The doctor still looked unhappy about the prospect but offered no further objections.

"Look, I need proof if he's the one who killed Agent Wainwright. I'm heading back to New York to see what else we can dig up on this guy, but I'll be out here again if I need to do any follow-up. Will it be necessary to fill out the access request form every time, or can I get a pass?"

"This isn't an amusement park, Agent Knight." Still, the doctor smiled. "But by all means. Give me your card, and I'll make sure the proper credentials are added to your agent profile until the completion of the case."

"Thanks, doc." Kendall glanced at the closed door once more. "And if you do see anything out of the ordinary, let me know. Especially if it just turns out he's projecting and there's nothing more going on than your average run of the mill psychic trickery."

"Of course. And thank you for coming out to address this. We contacted the Society several months ago with our concerns, and you're the first one who's gotten back to us."

"That darn bureaucracy, huh?" Kendall chuckled before waving. "Night."

The doctor bid him farewell and Kendall made his way out of the hospital. Before he'd gotten more than a few feet away from the steps, the base of Kendall's spine tingled. Glancing over his shoulder at the hallway behind him, he looked at the building again. For a moment, he thought he saw Blake standing in the hallway, but he was gone again when Kendall blinked.

 _Great. That would totally help me get sleep tonight._

* * *

 **Done! I know that this chapter was a little shorter, but I kind of planned for this to basically just be a reintroduction to the story.**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter! Is Blake really appearing everywhere? Is it just in everyone's head? Or is it something else entirely? These questions will be answered soon!**

 **Next chapter will see the return of a certain someone ;)**

 **I also happened to start writing a chapter to Untouchable while brainstorming so that will be up either tomorrow or Monday (which will also be when I reveal the results of the poll), then I'll work on finishing the chapter that I started for On Your Side!**

 **As for this story, I will be updating again within the next few days!**

 **Until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Hello again everyone! As promised, I'm back with a new chapter! Before we get started, I'd like to give a huge shout-out and thank you to winterschild11 and annabellex2! You two have been big supporters of mine from the beginning and it means so much to me! You've kept me going and inspired me to keep writing so thank you so much! :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

 _...1002,1003,1004,1005…_

"...and so, you can see from the numbers indicated here that your solve rate can increase exponentially if you find subtle ways to involve civilian authorities…"

 _...1015,1016,1017,1018…_

"Three thousand, four hundred and twenty," Agent Zevon muttered beside him.

Kendall's attention flickered away from the holes in the ceiling. _Damn, I lost my place._ "What?"

"Each tile has approximately one hundred and seventy-one holes. There are twenty tiles, therefore there should be three thousand, four hundred and twenty."

"Way to ruin the suspense, Dak."

The other agent shrugged and turned his attention to the front of the room.

Hell, he could be wrong. _1,2,3,4…_

It wasn't the lecture. It was the facilitator. He could have been narrating Die Hard and it would be mind-numbingly dull. Between the two active cases and his impressive solve rate, Kendall could have skipped out. But he'd been staring at his computer for the past ten hours and needed a break in the worst way. Blake hadn't caused any problems since they slapped on the muting bracelet, but Kendall still needed something solid to connect him to the murder. If he didn't get a lead, the whole case would probably just get swept under the rug, and he couldn't let that happen. Kelly deserved better than that.

Unfortunately, he was at the stage in the investigation where all he could do is wait. And he'd never been a particularly patient guy.

His pocket buzzed and he pulled out his phone, expecting to see a text from Lucy. He'd convinced her to pass on the lecture so she could hack into the personnel system and find anything and everything on Blake's previous employment. With the security they slammed down on that sort of thing, he'd be lucky if she got in when he was young enough to chase after bad guys without the aid of a walker.

It wasn't Lucy.

 _Help! What the hell is a tbsp?_

James. James was texting him. _I thought…_

James.

Kendall almost dropped his phone as his fingers flew too quickly across his keyboard. He kept it hidden under the desk as he typed his reply.

 _ **Tablespoon?**_

 _Ok. And can you substitute baking SODA for baking POWDER?_

 _ **No idea. What does the internet say?**_

 _Hold on._

"I doubt that our department head would be impressed if you dodged out on yet another lecture." Dak whispered.

Kendall glanced up at the front of the room. The slide hadn't changed for about ten minutes. An unlabeled bar graph with obnoxiously bright colors still dominated the entire screen.

"You're just jealous because you don't have an excuse to leave."

Dak shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Bingo. "There's significant value in attending these sessions."

"Right. Like you need to boost your solve rate."

Agent Zevon was a stickler for the rules, but he was also unfortunately awesome at his job. Kendall had been silently competing against him in a friendly rivalry for years. Each of them consistently hit over 93%, and while Kendall did it with intense personal flair, Dak's infuriatingly efficient by-the book approach irritated him to no end.

"Every little bit helps." There was a small sparkle in his eyes that he quickly covered up. It was nice to see. Sometimes, Kendall forgot Robo-Dak had a personality at all.

Kendall's phone buzzed again. The text had an air of desperation he normally wouldn't have associated with James.

 _Google says no. I need to go out. Come with?_

 _ **Can't. In a staff meeting :'(**_

 _Skip it. I'm better looking + give head ;)_

 _ **Be right there**_

Kendall glanced at Dak. "Gotta go." He said as he eased himself out of his seat, keenly aware of the stare Dak leveled at his back the entire way out the door.

Once he was in the hallway, Kendall quickly dialed James' number, his heart hammering.

When James answered, his tongue lodged in his throat for a second. He had to squeak out a few words.

"What are you doing exactly?"

" _The clinic's having a potluck, right? And by the time I got my name in, there were only two things left. A dozen cookies or a cheese tray."_

"And you picked something you'd have to bake over something any grocery store in the city could do for you?"

" _Just shut up and get over here. If you're good, I'll let you eat some of the dough."_

If he snuck out past the copy room, Lucy wouldn't see him. He ducked and crouched against the wall beneath the huge bay window as he approached the office secretarial pool. The monumetal gossips inside wouldn't waste a single minute in tattling on him to Lucy.

"Give me the directions to your place." He listened with half an ear as he crawled towards the door. "That's not too far."

" _Can we use your kitchen? Mine was practically destroyed after a tragic Pad Thai accident."_

"You don't know what a tablespoon is, but you attempted to cook Pad Thai?"

" _It seemed like a good idea at the time."_

Famous last words. He wasted no time in getting to his car and speeding out of the garage. James' place was a few blocks away from Violet Sage and traffic wasn't absolutely terrible, for once. James was waiting for him outside in- _holy fuck_ -leather pants and hopped over the door into the passenger's seat when Kendall pulled up to the curb.

"Okay, I wrote down the instructions." He waved a piece of paper under Kendall's nose. "We're going to need to pick up a few things. First and foremost, Grey Goose. I'm getting so totally sick of whiskey sours."

Kendall had never felt so relieved in his life. Okay, maybe once or twice, like when he managed to resolve an investigation without casualties and with only limited bodily harm… but this was still pretty fucking awesome. The hammering of his heart was a little much, and if he drove slower than normal to let himself get used to having James beside him after hating himself for letting it end, who could really blame him?

"Turn here. There's the store."

Kendall swung into a suddenly available parking spot in front of the store, glad he didn't have to do battle for a spot. Usually, the spaces around this area were few and far between.

"So what exactly is in these cookies?"

James pulled a crumpled sticky note from his pocket, obscenely jerking his hips to free it.

"We need flour, baking soda, chocolate chips-which I'm going to eat off you later, by the way, so I hope your sheets are machine washable-butter, eggs,vanilla… I think we can throw in a few a few extras, right? Like, nuts and stuff?"

"I don't know. I can't bake."

"We'll figure it out." Once an oversized truck passed by, James slipped out of the car and headed towards the front door. Kendall followed close behind. "Do you think we should split up?"

"I'm not leaving you alone to fend off the other customers while you're wearing those pants." Kendall told him honestly.

James looked down. "Oh? Do you think they're distracting?" He asked as he shook his hips.

"I'm pretty sure that was illegal in at least four states."

"Hmm… I'd hate to get arrested." He winked at Kendall. "Unless you still have those handcuffs hanging around."

An aging woman passing by stared at them curiously. Kendall offered her an apologetic look and received a thumbs-up for his troubles. During his split-second distraction, James had taken off down the nearby baking aisle. He dashed after him, barely remembering to grab a grocery basket on the way.

"Flour...flour...shit, how many different sorts of flour are there?" James stared at the line of neatly stacked bags. He picked up one of the smaller ones to study the label. "Tapioca flour. I didn't even know you could have tapioca flour. I hate tapioca."

"You and pretty much everyone else on the planet." Kendall agreed.

James tossed it back on the shelf. "Here's one. 'Best for baking.' Sounds good to me. And there's vanilla extract… ooh, rum. I think rum would go better in cookies, don't you?"

"Why not?" It wasn't as if he'd be the one eating them.

James passed him the small bottle, which seemed abnormally expensive. What the hell were they going to do with the leftover crap once they'd finished these cookies? Assuming his kitchen didn't burn down.

That was a pretty big assumption.

"Hey! Hazelnuts."

The small collection of items in their basket slowly piled up, the ingredients list disappearing somewhere between mini-marshmallows and chocolate chips. The recipe changed in James' head about six times and, by the time they headed for the cashier, they had a collection of several different sorts of chocolate-both in chip and bizarre square form with weird stamps on top-and enough miscellaneous items that Kendall couldn't even begin to imagine how James would be able to make them all fit inside a single cookie, let alone bake them successfully. Who the hell put green maraschino cherries in chocolate chip cookies anyway? The only time he'd ever seen them used before was in cocktails.

That might have been why James was buying them, but somehow, Kendall doubted it.

James had also added a generous bottle of Grey Goose and gin- _he remembered_ -to the basket. And after seeing the fevered look in his eyes when he really looked at their basket of random ingredients, Kendall had a sinking feeling that James was planning on using the liquor in the cookies too. He hoped his kitchen would survive this catastrophe. Or, at the very least, his microwave.

"Do we need condoms?"

Kendall's heart stuttered. _Thank you, God._ "Are we going to have sex?"

James stopped in step and pinned Kendall with a perplexed stare. "Are you feeling okay, Ken?"

"Yeah. Sorry, I'm… yeah."

James calmly took the basket and moved it over before pushing Kendall up against a nearby shelf. Packages of noodles crunched against his back, forgotten as James pinned him with a look of deep concern.

"You've been acting weird since you picked me up. Spill."

"I was surprised to hear from you, that's all."

James frowned. "Why?"

Kendall swallowed past the lump that had suddenly developed in his throat. "After Shane came back, I wasn't sure if I'd get to keep you."

James pressed his body against Kendall's. The shelf dug in a little, but Kendall had other body parts suddenly demanding his full attention.

"Why wouldn't you get to keep me, Ken?"

"I figured you'd have a thousand things you'd rather be doing, and I didn't…" He trailed off, not quite sure if he wanted to admit what he was really feeling.

"A thousand things? Well… I can think of about a thousand things I'd rather be doing _right now_ …" James kissed Kendall's neck and laid a proprietary bite on the junction of his neck and shoulder. "But two-thirds of them involve you."

"Really?"

"Ken, I swear that I will hunt down whoever hurt you and make them pay. But you need to stop feeling like you can't rely on anyone. And unless you don't want me, I'll be the one who decides when and If I'm done with you, get me? Stop trying to make the decision for me."

With that, he nuzzled Kendall's chin until he tilted it up and laid a deep kiss on his lips. James always tasted good, but there was always something so wonderful about kissing him. Like an indefinable welcome home that he hadn't expected or anticipated.

 _I really get to have this._

The sudden buzz of conversation broke into his awareness and Kendall pulled back. A small gaggle of school-aged girls had converged at the end of the aisle and were watching with rapt fascination and the occasional giggle. Kendall coughed and tried to slip out of James' arms. James tightened his grip.

"Uh-uh."

"But…"

"Uh-uh." James kissed him again. The deep sweep of his tongue searched for Kendall's and played gently against it for several long moments in a sensual tango. Kendall melted into James' arms, whiting out every ache and care he'd been carrying with him since they'd parted ways at the airport.

When James finally broke away, Kendall's knees had turned into jelly and he almost dropped to the ground. James looked over at the girls, who giggled and scattered.

"Feel better?"

"Can't feel anything below my neck, actually."

"Too bad. You'll probably have a tough time getting to the car then. And how will we ever get home?"

"Go grab condoms. I'll meet you at the cashier. And try not to scandalize anyone, okay?"

"I'm hurt that you'd deny me a little fun." With a wink, James headed down the aisle, a definite sway in his hips. Kendall watched after him. Those pats really didn't leave anything to the imagination.

* * *

 **Done! So James is back! And I just have to ask, how perfect is James! I love his dynamic with Kendall in this story!**

 **Anyway, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as your thoughts on Kames' dynamic in this story!**

 **Next chapter will contain more Kames, and the next update will be coming soon, and you can also expect updates for some of my other stories very soon as well!**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: Hello again everyone! It's time for another update! I planned to have this update up earlier, but life got in the way :P**

 **Anyway, a huge thank you to everyone that reviewed last chapter! I'm so glad to see that you all are enjoying the story so far!**

 **Before we get to the chapter, I must warn you all that this is where the M rating come in. Things get... hot and heavy this chapter ;)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

James busied himself in the kitchen with collecting a few bowls and a spatula that had seen better days, leaving Kendall struck by how natural he looked in his surroundings. It was funny how often he'd caught himself smiling since meeting James. Being around him was than comfortable. Safe. It was a good feeling.

It took James a few minutes to notice Kendall's scrutiny.

"What?"

"You're on your way to becoming a regular fixture."

The corner of James' mouth lifted in a smirk. "Is that a good thing?"

"Well, you do clash with my furniture." Kendall crossed the kitchen and wrapped an arm around James' waist.

James ran a hand through Kendall's hair. His cool metal rings brushed against Kendall's head, sending a shiver down his spine.

"I'm thinking of redecorating."

James bent over and kissed him. His lips were shockingly warm and incredibly soft. Kendall wasn't able to stop his mouth from curling upward into a happy grin, and James wasted no time tracing it with the tip of his tongue.

"You're obviously the must-have accessory of the season." Kendall said.

"Mmm... like leather gloves."

"Or a cashmere scarf." Kendall rose on his toes slightly to whisper in James' ear. "Or an ascot." He nipped James' earlobe.

"You dirty thing." James laughed. The sound, rich and deep, washed through Kendall in a rolling wave of warmth. "I'll deal with you later. First, cookies."

"Number one thing never heard in an evil overlord's secret lair." Kendall headed to the bags to collect the chocolate chips. That was obviously the first logical step in cookie making of the chocolaty variety, right?

"If I were an evil overlord, my lair would be unfailingly fabulous. Everything from the guard uniforms to the interior design would inspire both terror and wistful awe." James pulled what appeared to be a coffee mug out of the cupboard and dipped it into the pathetic miniature bag of flour they'd purchased.

"Is there room on the staff for me?" Kendall asked.

"There's definitely room on my staff for you."

Kendall threw the package of chocolate at him. James dodged back and let it hit the corner of Kendall's fridge with a thud before falling to the ground.

"What? I'll need sex slaves to distract the heroes and you fit the bill nicely. We'll oil you up, get you a gold bikini thong... it'll be magic." He finished emptying the grocery bag. They'd really gone to town in the store. Kendall was going to be stuck with a lot of assorted crap in his cupboards.

Kendall stared at the jar of molasses. At least his mustard would have something to keep it company. _I wonder how long this shit lasts..._ "Wait, all I get is pleasure slave? Aren't there any openings for morally ambiguous lieutenants?"

"Sorry, babe. There'll be no morally ambiguous anyones in my evil lair of doomy doom. You'll end up having a sudden onset of conscience at the last second and turn on me and end up shacking up with the hero as my plans of world domination fall apart. And while I'm all for shacking up with the hero, we'll engage in such activities _together_ , when confined to my lavishly decorated living quarters after I've taken over the world and _not_ when I'm about to press the button that will bring my evil plans to fruition."

"Pfft. Figures. Give a guy the best days of your life..."

James dumped half a box of baking soda in the bowl and looked at Kendall. "Best days of your life, huh?" He raised a skeptical eyebrow, but there was question in his eyes that Kendall couldn't ignore.

Blood rose in his cheeks. Goddamn complexion. "You know, I think they have been. I forgot I could have fun outside the office. You've really reminded me."

James remained still for a second. Then, with two quick strides, he pushed Kendall against the counter, his body hot and achingly hard against him. He nipped Kendall's chin and trailed his lips along his jaw. He lifted Kendall's shirt and scratched his thumbnail across the smooth planes of Kendall's stomach.

"I think we'll save the baking for later." James said as he settled himself between Kendall's legs. "And get started on those other thousand things."

"What did you have in mind?" Kendall asked before he kissed James again, just because he could.

"Well, there are those handcuffs..."

And yep, Kendall liked that idea. Before he could even register his hands' illicit activities-they seemed to be very good at subconsciously navigating complicated buttoning mechanisms-he had James' pants halfway off. "Let me guess, underwear doesn't go with leather pants?" Not that he minded. James' wonderfully thick cock was the best thing in Kendall's suddenly very small universe.

"You can't ruin your lines with underwear, Ken. It's against the rules." James braced himself against the counter as Kendall slid down the length of his body.

Kneeling on the kitchen floor had it's benefits. Like access to James' amazing dick.

"You...ah...while you're down there..."

"Yes?"

"Fuck, Ken, do you want me to beg?" There was something undeniably appealing about the idea. Kendall kissed the head of James' cock and flicked his tongue out for a second to probe at the slit. James drew in a ragged breath. "That's...yes...what I was..."

"Not really much opportunity for handcuffs though." Kendall said as he cupped James' sac, gently massaging it with careful caresses. "Wouldn't you much rather cuff me to the bed and have your wicked way with me there?" Before James could respond, Kendall sucked the tip of his erection into his mouth, rolling his lips around the hot flesh. He waited until James' eyes had squeezed shut above him, then removed his mouth and blew a cool breath against the heated skin.

The sensation seemed to rob James of his remaining mental faculties. He groaned and bit down on his lower lip. "I'm a fan of the idea."

Kendall rose from his knees, kissing James' lower lip and easing it out from beneath the hard oppression of his teeth. "Come on."

James kicked off his pants and allowed Kendall to lead him from the kitchen, his ensemble falling to the ground in separate pieces en route. When he walked through Kendall's bedroom door, he was naked except for his few pieces of jewelry. Kendall put a hand on his firm chest to stop him in place. When he was sure that James would stay, he stepped back. With acing slowness, he removed his shirt, sliding the thin cotton up over his abs and letting James get a good look. He paused at his nipples, eyeing the silver piercing that James sported on his own.

"Should I get one of those?" Kendall slid his thumb across his left nipple. "I've never considered tats or piercings. Do you think it'd be a good idea?"

"I think you're perfect the way you are."

The words slid through Kendall like fire and he had to restrain himself from forgoing foreplay and leaping on the other man. Thanks to his self-control-which he absolutely hated at the moment-he did finish removing his shirt with a quick yank and threw it to the ground. _Now the pants. Do I want to tear them off, or make him wait for it?_ He played with his belt as he considered it, enjoying the subtle shifts and hunger flashing across James' face. _Nah._ Kendall tore his pants off a lot quicker, sending both the jeans and his underwear to pool on the ground at his feet.

He wasn't self-conscious about his body, but the fascination with which James studied him was a little unnerving.

"So?" Kendall said as he looked over his shoulder towards the bed.

James coughed. "So." Broken from his trance, he crossed the short space between them and pushed Kendall down onto the bed. Kendall moved to face the headboard as James retrieved the handcuffs from the bedside table. Kendall couldn't remember why he'd left them there, but he thanked every higher power in existence that he had.

James dropped the key onto the top of the table for easy access and flipped Kendall over, snaking one of the cuffs around his wrist in one smooth move. "I have plans for you." He looped the short chain through the heavy wood slats and caught Kendall's other wrist to lock it in. Gently, he eased Kendall up the bed so there wasn't any pressure on his wrists. "Fuck. I forgot the condoms. Wait here."

"Hardee har har." Kendall deadpanned, but smiled anyway as James darted back to the kitchen. He tested the handcuffs and sure enough James had solidly secured them in place. _If he leaves now I'm fucked._ The thought was so bizarre that Kendall found himself chuckling. Still, he couldn't help felling a small stab of relief when James returned.

He lingered in the doorway, devouring Kendall with his eyes. Kendall responded to the appreciative gaze in kind. Sweeping lines of tribal tattoos covered James' left pectoral and crept up along the width of his shoulder, lines dancing back and forth together in elegant pattering until it stopped at his biceps. The other half of his chest was clear, the asymmetry so completely James that Kendall found himself loving the other man a tiny bit. _Dangerous._

James neared the bed, popping open the cap on the bottle of lube as he approached. He poured a generous amount into his palm before casting the rest aside. He straddled Kendall's body and held himself up on his knees. Once he'd generously coated two of his fingers, he reached behind himself and _holy fuck, what?_

James grinned. "I told you I had plans."

Watching James prepare himself was almost Kendall's undoing. Kendall couldn't stand the sheer ecstasy written across his face as his fingers went about their wixkedness. Forgetting about the handcuffs, he made an aborted attempt to grab for the other man.

"I'm not a fan of these anymore."

"Well, sweetie, that's just too bad." James moved his body, sliding their crotches together with enough pressure to make Kendall's already hard cock leak in anticipation. With agonizingly slow movements, he rolled a condom down Kendall's throbbing shaft. "Ready for me?"

"Never."

"Good."

James leaned forward and then, with deliberate and bastardly slowness, lowered himself onto Kendall's cock. The heat. The friction. The joyous everything. A moan tore itself out of Kendall's chest, a deep groan that started in his toes and curled up the entire length of his body. When James was fully seated, he brought attention to Kendall's nipples with sadistic care while simultaneously moving his hips.

The torturous pace was the same as their first time together. Kendall's hips responded, driving himself up into James' tantalizing heat. It was getting hard to tell where he ended and James began. Hours passes-didn't they?-with the same breath-robbing pace escalating between them.

"Faster."

He had no idea who said it, but it was a fantastic idea. James rose and fell, taking Kendall all the way in and then coming close to losing him completely. Kendall focused all of his willpower, trying to hold on as long as he could.

James slid himself back slightly, and his head fell back as Kendall brushed against his prostate. Their movements quickened into long strokes and thrusts of his hips that robbed both of them of any coherence. Kendall could feel his climax swelling through him, the dam close to breaking. Precome flowed freely from James' own erection, dark with need.

Kendall's hips snapped as he drove again and again against James' prostate. _Come on, Jay. Come for me. Just like this._

James groaned as if he'd heard the words. Hell, he probably had. Kendall barely registered the strain on his wrists as he jerked halfway off the bed, pumping into James as hard and as fast as his angle allowed. With a few more thrusts-as deep as he could go without leverage-he yelled James' name as his orgasm crashed into him with the unleashed power of a thunderbolt. James screamed too, but Kendall was too lost in the deafening roar in his ears to hear anything except the hammer of his heart.

James collapsed on top of him and the two of them lay still together, panting and spent. Sweat and pleasure heated James' entire body, like a miniature heater filled with glowing coals warming the world around them.

Kendall's brain shut down and his head fell back on the pillow. Spent. Satiated. Well-fucked. Completely and utterly done.

He hardly registered James rising. A few seconds later, the handcuffs were undone and James placed a kiss on the inside of either wrist. He drifted off the bed-shushing Kendall's wordless protest with a brush of lips-and returned several long moments later with a damp cloth to clean them up. After tossing it aside, he crawled back into the bed, wrapping around Kendall's barely living form.

Cuddling into James, Kendall looped his arms around the other man.

"Eventually, we're going to have to-" James half-cut himself off with a giant yawn. "-finish those cookies."

"Later." Kendall murmured sleepily. He kissed James' throat. _Much later._

James sniffed and shifted closer. "It's getting easy to read your surface thoughts. Easier than it's ever been with anyone. Is that okay?" He asked with such sincerity and concern that if Kendall wasn't currently half-sleep, he probably would've blushed.

"Right now you could ask me if it was okay to do obscene things on Kevin's desk and I'd say yes. You've sucked my brain out through my cock. Feel free to take advantage of it."

James chuckled. "Oh. I will."

* * *

 **Done! I'm just realizing what a roller-coaster this chapter is! Going from sweet, to slightly dirty, to obscenely dirty, back to sweet :P**

 **Anyway, all in all a Kames filled couple of chapters that I really hope you all enjoyed! I will be updating this story again within the next week or so. I will also more than likely update one of my other stories within the next week as well, I just haven't decided which one.**

 **As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this Kames filled chapter! I will try and update as soon as I can! :)**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with another update! I planned on having this up earlier this week along with another update, but once again, life got in the way! :P**

 **Anyway, as always, a huge thank you to everyone that reviewed last chapter! Sadly, we're quickly reaching the ending point of this story, but there is still quite a way to go.**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

"Jay? I'm going for a run. I'll be back in about an hour."

Ugh. Morning people.

James waved at Kendall's disembodied voice and curled deeper into the pile of blankets, drifting off to enjoy sultry dreams about Kendall peeling grapes in a golden bikini thong. He'd spent over an hour the previous night trying to talk him into one in between batches of cookies that didn't look exactly edible. Kendall wasn't going to bend. Yet...

It didn't seem like an entire hour had passed before the front door opened again.

"Ken? I brought coffee. I've got something I need to talk to you about."

James' surprise jerked him out of the pleasant grape-peeling dream. That wasn't Kendall. _Oh, shit, is that Lucy?_ Pants, pants, pants... shit, pants were in the kitchen. Kendall's bathrobe was too small. Bed sheet toga? What had Kendall said about his assistant? A little shorter than him. Big shoes. Terrifying. Toga was out. Dammit. Did he bite the bullet or risk a naked dash to the kitchen?

There was suddenly a knock on the bedroom door. "Ken?"

 _Fuck_ _._ "Nope."

Silence. "Would you be the owner of the leather pants?"

"Yep."

She paused briefly. "I'm going to pass them through the door. You have exactly thirty seconds to pull them on, make yourself presentable and get your ass out here."

"Do I have any other options?"

"Only if Kendall's got a window."

He looked at the window longingly. The thirty-six-story drop would probably be less painful, but he decided there was no avoiding it. "Understood."

He doubted that she would extend the same ultimatum to any of Kendall's other one-night stands. She had to know there was something more serious going on. Which there was. Kinda. Actually, more than kinda. If Kendall's work would stop getting in the fucking way.

If she thought she could scare him away from Kendall, she had another thing coming.

She opened the door slightly, flung the pants inside in a single movement and slammed it shut again as they smacked into his face. It took less than ten seconds to roll out of bed and pull them on. He ran his hands through his hair-a hopeless cause, he still looked bright-eyed and well-fucked-and made it out the door in twenty six seconds.

Lucy had seated herself on the couch, legs crossed neatly at the ankle. She wasn't really that scary. James had spent most of his exceptionally bratty teenage years being terrified into submission by his mom, the queen of 'I'm going to kill you' pageant. And while Lucy was scary, she didn't even rate runner-up.

"Lucy?"

Her lips pursed. "Yes. And you are?" She gave him a quick once-over, gaze lingering on the nipple piercing and the tattoos before drawing her gaze away.

 _Okay,_ really _not liking that tone._ "James."

"Ah."

The flopped down into the armchair opposite the couch. Resting his head against his knuckles, he stared at her. Dark, red streaked locks angled around her face in a way that med her look threatening. Despite that, she had a delicate sort of pretty going on. Like a carefully crafted China doll. With explosives strapped on...

Fuck it. "All right, Ken and I have been seeing each other for less than a month. We met a club. I'm not using him for sex, although the sex _is_ great..."- _See,_ now _she's going to kill me.-"_ And we have a nice, workable thing going on. Now that _that's_ on the table, I'd greatly appreciate it if you brought down the intensity of your death glare by a notch or two."

Surprisingly, she did. "You're the reason he hasn't been spending every night on our office couch?"

James nodded. "Supposedly. Though I've noticed that he has problems turning off Work Kendall."

Lucy smiled sadly. "You have no idea."

James picked out a hundred fleeting half-memories, snapshots in an ill constructed montage. Kendall sitting alone in the office, sleeping on a battered old couch, missing days off and forgoing weekends. He got a glimpse of Kendall looking so rundown that he ached to reach into her Lucy's mind and pull Kendall into his arms.

He withdrew. Picking up on projections was one thing, but he never wanted to be the guy that abused his abilities, and digging any deeper would do that. If he wanted to make a go of it with Kendall, he'd do it the old fashioned way.

Before the thought terrified him, the apartment door opened and Kendall stepped inside. He froze when he saw them seated together. "Lucy. Hi."

Was Kendall panicking?

"I dropped in this morning to talk and ran into a pair of leather pants in the kitchen. Funnily enough, I happened to find the owner in your bedroom. We've been chatting."

Kendall paled slightly. "Why've I been dropped into the ninth circle of hell? I haven't betrayed anyone."

His shirt clung to his torso, soaked with sweat from a long run. And totally delicious right there. Of course, he was probably freezing, considering how stupidly cold he kept the place. His nipples could cut glass. _Way to show up and ruin my fun, Lucy._

Lucy stood, taking her extra large coffee cup with her.

"Don't you think you're being a touch melodramatic? Why would this be hell, Ken? It's not like you didn't tell me you were sneaking out early while I was wasting away under piles of paperwork, right? Because If I found out that you were, I'd have to do terrible things to little Ken."

Okay, now Kendall was deathly pale.

Lucy looked back at James. "Do you cook?"

James thought of the pile of cookies-in-name-only sitting on the kitchen countertop. "Not even a little."

"Then I suppose I'll make breakfast. Ken, go shower." She disappeared in the direction of the kitchen, leaving them alone in the room.

Kendall cast a wary glance after her and then gestured silently for James to follow him into the bedroom, Kendall already stripping as the door closed behind them.

"Sorry if that was awkward. I'm not sure why she's here. She would've called me if we had gotten any new leads on the case."

James dropped a kiss on Kendall's shoulder, salt lingering on his lips. "It's fine. She's not nearly as scary as you led me to believe."

"She's lulling you into a false sense of security. Don't go anywhere alone with her."

James laughed and pulled Kendall into a hug. _Fuck it, I'll just jump in the shower with him._ They held each other tightly for a few seconds before Kendall shucked the rest of his clothes and headed into his adjoining bathroom.

Before he could follow Kendall into the shower, a disgusted shout rang out from the kitchen.

"What the hell is wrong with these cookies?!"

XxX

Lucy was managing something relatively close to a normal breakfast using their leftover eggs. The cookies themselves found their way from the artfully arranged paper plate to the trash bin and were in the process of eating through the plastic liner. Kendall poked at his scrambled eggs, occasionally throwing fretful glances toward James and Lucy as she focused on frying two more. Any second now, they were going to drop the polite act, pull swords and go at it like characters from a Japanese cartoon. Highly pressurized blood would spray everywhere. Hopefully they'd stick to the kitchen and avoid splattering his carpet in gore. Getting bloodstains out was such a pain in the ass.

Distracted as he was by the mental image of a bloodbath in the middle of his living room, he didn't immediately notice the nervous edge to Lucy's movements and the occasional worried look she threw his way. It wasn't about James. She'd never had a problem speaking her mind about the people Kendall brought home, even when they were in hearing range. It had to be something else. Something worse. Dread settled in his gut like ice water and it took him a few minutes to muster up the courage to speak.

"Luce? It's Saturday morning before noon. I barely expect you up this early on a weekday. What's up?"

The question silenced them both. Lucy stepped away from the stove and slipped the newly cooked eggs onto James' plate before taking the seat across the table. She reached for her purse and withdrew a cream-colored envelope to pass his way.

Kendall looked at her curiously before taking it and opening it silently.

 _Dear Ms. Stone,_

 _This is the third notice we have sent to address your blatant disregard for our guidelines regarding security and privacy. This continues to be a serious matter, as it potentially compromises the welfare and safety of our leaders, agents, assistants and administrative teams at all levels. Not only have we sent you two other memorandums to discourage specific instances of this behavior, but we have cause to believe you have been involved in hundreds of other undetected incidences of the same nature._

 _As you have not met the expectations outlined in our previous correspondence, we have no choice but to promote you to the position of Head Officiate of Assistant-Agent Relations. Effective pending the resolution of any active open case files, we will be assigning your new agent a new assistant and require you to report to our department immediately to assume your new responsibilities._

 _Understand that we are not promoting you based on merit, but because you have been privy to a large amount of potentially dangerous information and cannot remain at your current level. Despite the circumstances behind this promotion, we are confident you will succeed._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Department Manager_

 _Offices of Assistant-Agent Relations_

Kendall got about as far as _Head Officiate_ before dropping the enclosed papers onto the table.

He opened and shut his mouth several times, finally settling on a barely articulated "Oh." How was he supposed to do this without Lucy? "Congratulations."

He'd be dead within a month. Fuck a month, he'd be dead in a week. He didn't have any common sense. "That's a pretty big deal. You'll be able to afford two pairs of shoes per paycheck now." She did everything. He'd be lucky if he remembered to load his fucking guns. And what was he going to do about those fucking reports? He didn't even hit record on his phone while narrating if she didn't remind him to do it.

 _"_ Ken..."

 _Fuck, I think I'm having a panic attack. Get out, get out, get out. Get your ass out the door, Knight, and take some time to recover._ "I have to go."

Lucy's face fell. "Ken, don't..."

"I have a few things at the office that... I have to go." He was repeating himself. Bad sign. He stood, leaving his eggs abandoned on the plate. He barely registered James and Lucy both calling after him as he madly grabbed his blazer and keys before running out of the apartment.

* * *

 **Done! So, James finally met Lucy! Bad news is, it looks like she and Kendall are going to be separated :(**

 **A little fin fact: It took me over a little over an hour to write that letter because I had no idea what I was doing. But all in all, I think it came out alright :P**

 **Anyways, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, especially your thoughts on the LucyxJames meeting and the whole Lucy getting promoted situation!**

 **I have a little more free time this week so there will definitely be more than one update this week! :D**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N: Hello again everyone! As promised, I'm back with a new update! As always, a HUGE thank you to everyone that read and reviewed last chapter! :)**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

 _Pull yourself together, Kendall._

Where was the stupid form for this stupid requisition?

She wasn't leaving the country. She wasn't even leaving the building. She'd be on a different floor, that was all.

And why wasn't this program opening? What was an invalid file type?

She'd be on a different floor, with different people and doing an amazing job, like she always did. And this was all his fault. He was the one who pushed for results. She never would have gotten caught on any of those security breaches if he'd been patient enough to wait for them to edit the info before sending it their way.

He hated his computer. He was going to throw it out the fucking window. And Lucy would be too busy trying to keep the peace between jilted assistants and their asshole agents to request a new one for him. That would be her new role, after all, playing fucking matchmaker to determine who got stuck with whom.

How was he even supposed to function with another assistant after Lucy? Lucy was perfect. She kept him on task, made sure he did what he needed to do, offered insights and suggestions that steered him on the right course. She was the only person in the whole Society who got his sense of humor... dealing with someone else would be torturous.

Maybe he'd turn down the offer of another assistant. Dak did without one. He'd driven eight assistants off last year with his ridiculous perfectionism and sworn off the need for them altogether. So what if it was a breach of Society protocol? They couldn't force him to work with anyone.

And he damn well wasn't going to deal with an assistant whose name wasn't Lucy Stone.

The first day he'd walked into the Society building after training, freshly recruited from college and ready to make a difference, she'd taken one look at him, laughed and given him the tour. She'd never tried to jade what he now knew was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed innocence, even when she suspected he wouldn't cut it. And the first time he'd had to process a murder scene, she'd known enough to show up at his apartment afterward with liquor and comforting stories about the good things that would come with his new position in the Society.

He slumped in his seat, staring accusatorially at his monitor. Lucy would be brilliant at this new position, of course. She was brilliant at everything.

And he'd have to get used to being without her.

Right. He could get used to someone pulling out his fingernails too, but it would still be painful.

Finally he pushed back from his desk to take a few deep breaths. "I can't do this."

"Of course you can."

Kendall swung around. James stood outside his office door, at ease in the office environment despite his sinfully tight T-shirt.

"She knows you can do it too."

"How did you get in?"

"I batted my eyelashes at the security guard and offered him a blowjob."

Kendall could feel eyes bugging out of his skull. "And he-"

"Kidding, Ken. God, you're so gullible when you forget who can lie to you." James strode across the room. "Lucy let me in. She figured you'd be having a mild stroke but wasn't sure if her being here would make it any easier." James straddled Kendall's lap. It should have been a little awkward, considering the slight height difference. It wasn't. It was perfect. "Me, on the other hand, I make everything easier." He added jokingly.

Kendall leaned against James' solid frame. "Yeah. You do."

James rested his hands against Kendall's neck, and his cool metal rings eased the heated flush of his skin. Kendall let James' quiet, even breathing gradually calm his racing heart. One of his fears-the biggest one, actually-was that without Lucy telling him to go home once in a while, he'd end up buried in his job and forget to surface for anything except the occasional Starbucks. It wasn't like he had any real motivation to leave the office. Not until recently, anyway. And he could hardly expect James to-

"Easy, tiger. Why don't we give this... thing a real go, and see if I can't give you something worth coming home to?"

Kendall tilted his head. He was getting used to the silent laughter that had set up a permanent home in James' eyes, but the deep sincerity was something new. "But you don't date."

"Who says?"

"I didn't catch his name, but the guy that I got into a fight with when I first came to the club. He was the one with the weird acronym on his shirt."

James laughed. "Jesse. He's a half-step away from stalker. He wears the shirt to the club every night to try and convince people to stay away from me."

"Why? What does it-"

"Bends Over For James Mitchell."

Kendall didn't notice the tug on his own lips until it'd turned into a full smile. "I want one of those shirts. Is that some sort of club I can join?"

James brushed his lips across Kendall's forehead. "It's more like an exclusive fraternity. I'll see if they're admitting new members."

Kendall's resurfacing good humor faded as Lucy came back to mind. "I don't know what I'm going to do without her, Jay. I- she's more than just my assistant. She's my family. I feel like I'm being shuffled between foster homes again."

"Kendall, I've known Lucy for less than two hours and I can tell that she cares about you. She's not going to disappear from your life just because she's moving into another position."

"In my head, I know that. But not everyone had the same luck you did with foster parents. They moved me six times. No one wanted me. And this feels exactly like it did after I'd been kicked out."

James carded his fingers through Kendall's hair. It eased some of the pressure squeezing his heart. "There's a difference."

"I keep trying to tell myself that, but I don't seem to trust me very much."

James tucked a finger under Kendall's chin, forcing him to look up again. "Then trust me. There is a difference. And whether it's because of me or Lucy or Gus or anyone else who comes along, you're not going to be alone anymore."

Kendall smirked in disbelief. "Don't you think it's too soon to be offering me forever?"

James opened his mouth to respond when a cutting voice broke through the wall of their happy Kames bubble.

"Is this why you wouldn't come to Paris with me?"

James looked over his shoulder but didn't move. Kendall had to crane his neck to peer around him.

Jett looked awful. Bags hung under his eyes like bruises, and he'd become thin and pale.

"Jett. You look like shit." Understatement of the year. "Why are you in on a Saturday?"

"I was reviewing some of my past assignments. And honestly, I was hoping to catch up with you. I had no idea you'd be... otherwise occupied." He stared at James, though the psychic seemed to refuse to comment.

Kendall squirmed and James finally removed himself to let Kendall stand. If he was going to have it out with Jett, he was going to do so while vertical. And it didn't hurt to have over six feet of solid gorgeous backing him up.

"Jett Stetson, this is James Mitchell."

"I really wish I could say I was pleased to meet you." Jett said. "But as it stands, I'm a little hurt."

"Hurt? Please. Hurt was when I walked in on you in bed with Jenny from Accounting."

"Do you really want to get into this, Ken? Here? Now? With your new lover in the room?" Jett rested against the doorframe. It looked like he was having problems even standing. "James, was it? James, let me tell you something about Kendall. Without meaning to, he'll break your heart."

James shifted uncomfortably. "Is that right?"

"It will start innocently. He'll give you a rain check for a night out. He'll ask if you can push back your plans two or three times, until you stop pestering him about it. He'll cancel things you've arranged months in advance. He'll stop coming home. Eventually, it'l get to the point where you think he's having an affair. He's not. Not with a human being, anyway. Once the sparkle of the new relationship has worn off-or a particularly interesting case catches his eye- he'll end up back on that couch in his office. No matter how much you like him, love him, you won't be able to compete with his job."

"I don't believe that." James said stiffly as Kendall immediately looked down, knowing that everything Jett was saying was true.

"It doesn't matter if you don't believe it, James. I'm trying to save you my heartache." Jett's attention shifted back to Kendall. "Hopefully you're smart enough to listen to me or see the signs before it's too late, instead of allowing yourself to be led astray by deciding that, as Kendall's bitter ex, I have nothing worthwhile to say."

"Why shouldn't I? From what Lucy told me, you left a pretty long list of broken-hearted bimbos behind when you left the country."

True enough. Kendall was surprised he'd gotten any time alone with Jett when they were dating, considering the revolving-door attitude he had to the others he'd fucked. _Then again, I guess I was the least demanding._ He didn't miss the flash of anger in James' eyes, hot on the trail of the sour thought. _Stupid psychics._

"Perhaps. But he's the only one I regretted." Jett's lips pulled into a tight line. "Kendall is fantastic. He's funny and smart. Before long, you'll end up wanting to spend every waking hour with him. But he'll never feel the same way."

"Just because it didn't work for you doesn't mean it won't work for us."

"No? Ask him why he didn't come to Paris with me, then. It wasn't because I didn't want him to. Kendall's first love is his job. The Society is more important to him then you or me or anyone he'll ever be with. Inevitably, he always goes back."

"So if you know that, why do you keep hanging around my office?" Kendall demanded.

"Christ, Ken, why do you think?"

"I don't know what to think. Except that I want you to leave. Now. We're done. We were done before you left. And I'm not going to keep dragging up our history because you regret how everything went down."

"Regret doesn't even begin to cover it." Jett retorted. "Fine. James, I hope that for Kendall's sake, you're a stronger man than me. Because he needs someone who's going to be able to love him in absentia."

Jett showed himself from the office, his usual posture defeated by whatever illness was raging through his body.

"I'm so sorry, James." Kendall muttered. "You shouldn't have had to deal with that."

"Well, not before lunch anyway." James agreed.

Despite his words, there was a shadow in his eyes. Something faded and sad that was gone as soon as Kendall caught the barest glimpse of it.

Before Kendall could ask what was wrong, James caught his sleeve to pull him closer and laid a kiss on his temple. "Come on. Lucy's waiting outside, and she's feelings a thousand kinds of guilty."

Kendall slumped in the loose embrace as the morning's other trauma returned, obliterating the remaining discomfort over Jett's intrusion. "I don't know what I'm supposed to say to her. She loves being an assistant. She's been doing it since before I came aboard and I don't know-"

"Maybe she just loves being _your_ assistant, Ken."

The quip was automatic. "Well, who wouldn't?"

James grinned. "There he is. Come on. I know for a fact you've been too busy wallowing in self-pity to eat anything, and our eggs got cold while me and Lucy talked. I'm starving."

It didn't seem as bad as it had. Maybe he'd needed to hear someone tell him he wasn't going to have to do it alone. Even if he was. James was a solid, comforting presence beside him. One that Kendall had become dangerously used to.

"Sounds good to me. With the promotion, I think Lucy can afford to treat, don't you?"

* * *

 **Done! How amazing is James?! How amazing is James with Kendall?! They're so perfect together! :')**

 **Anyway, quite a bit happened this chapter. Kendall and Jett finally had it out over how everything went down between them, James finally met Jett, and speaking of Jett, there's something going on with him.**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, especially the KendallxJett argument and James' reaction to said argument. I'd also love to hear if you had a favorite moment! :)**

 **I'm planning on updating this again by next weekend at the latest. I'm working on updates for my other stories while also trying to finish planning out my first Wattpad story! So things are a little busy at the moment, but I promise updates are coming! ;)**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with another new chapter! A huge thank you goes out to winterschild11 for reviewing last chapter as well as everyone that read it! :)**

 **This chapter is a little shorter, but you all get to see what's going on in James' head as well as a little bit more about his background.**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

"At some point, you're going to have to go back to your apartment."

Kendall had a point. James needed to feed Eddie, lest the lizard become grumpy and attack the first thing in sight. And he didn't have a change of clothes. He didn't even have conditioner, and Kendall didn't keep any-which was completely unfair considering how soft Kendall's hair was. Yet going back to his apartment would require effort, and he was quite blissfully enjoying the satisfying laziness that followed hot on the heels of intense sexual euphoria. With the added bonus of watching Kendall twist himself into painful looking yoga poses.

The current one looked preposterously uncomfortable. Kendall's legs fought to remain stationary while he arched his butt up off the floor. Obviously, there was a certain amount of awesome involved in having an uber-stretchy-flexible man for hot sexy times, but yoga? Really?

Then again, it was probably taking his mind off the debacle with Lucy. Not that lunch yesterday had been awkward-much-but he'd been obviously shaken up well into the night. Kendall hadn't even reacted when James had threatened him with the Next Gen Star Trek movies. All things considered, that should have been the biggest warning sign, like, ever. Especially when James had pulled out the DVD for Nemesis.

Kendall was usually easy to distract. Well, based on previous observations, anyway. Hopefully he'd snap out of it before Monday so he could compose himself with good grace when he went in to work. He didn't want to think about Kendall brooding around in the office all day when James wouldn't be there to entertain him.

He hoped Shane didn't expect much of him for their 'coffee date' that evening, because he was totally wrecked.

"Isn't yoga for women and hippies?"

"Shut up. I'm super manly."

James grinned unapologetically. "Actually, this reminds me of some exercises my Dad put me through when I first started really developing my psychic abilities. The most ridiculous stuff you can imagine. Stopping bullets. Containing explosions... like I'll ever need to do that."

He'd hated it at first, but it'd been better than feeling like he was going to end up mind-raping everyone he came across. Those hadn't been fun days. He never wanted to be the kind of person who spent hours developing their powers and become another Society problem child when he went insane and tried to take over the world. But, as his dad told him time and time again, it wouldn't have been much better to become a psychic whose powers were completely out of control, either. Same file, different info.

"Your dad sounds like a pretty prepared guy."

"He also led my Boy Scout troop, if you're wondering."

"I wasn't. And I find it hard to believe you were ever in Boy Scouts."

"Why? I can be just as rugged and manly as the next guy."

Kendall laughed and shifted into the next yoga position, which looked just as uncomfortable and way harder than James could manage without using telekinesis and, come on, how did anyone have that much forearm strength?

"Anyway, I guarantee that since you brought this up, you'll have to do one or both of those highly improbable things within the month. There's something so perfectly Murphy's Law about it." Kendall chuckled.

"Thanks for jinxing my streak of good luck. If anyone bombs the clinic, I'm going to come looking for you."

Kendall's palms remained flat on the carpet, but not another inch of his body was touching the ground. Even his knees rested on his elbows. Kendall seemed to drop into a quiet headspace, the slow rise and fall of his chest as he evened out his breathing was surprisingly soothing.

He broke out of the mantra and dropped back to the floor. He lay on his back and looked up at the ceiling, studying the details in the spackle far too closely.

"This is a lot to deal with." Kendall finally muttered.

"Hmm?"

"Lucy. This case. My... stuff with Kevin. I don't think I've been hit with such a brutal three-hit combo since the last time I played Battle Arena Toshinden 3."

"Did you seriously enjoy that piece of shit?"

"Dude. Playing as Ten Count was awesome."

"And you think _I'm_ the girly one in this relationship?"

Despite his words, something warm stirred in the pit of his stomach. Warm yet messy. Because Kendall really was sort of perfect, in a geeky and totally obscure kind of way. He'd act like such a stuck-up Society stooge sometimes, and then completely blow James' perceptions all out of the water with ancient video game references and stupid nerd cliches.

God, he really hoped Jett had been wrong. He could see traces of what the other man-the "bitter ex"-had claimed. The late hours. Logging in from home. James had slapped his hand away from his laptop six times last night. The academic part of him got it. Kendall was hiding in his work. But overworking himself was a coping mechanism he'd been relying on for years. And how the hell was James going to even start breaking him of that habit?

James stood from the couch and walked over to Kendall to look down at him. Before Kendall could say a word, he straddled his hips.

"You know I think you're pretty amazing, right? And regardless of how hard life's been hitting you lately, I'm here if you need to talk about it."

Kendall's smile, faded but still lingering out of old habit, returned full force. "Thanks, Jay."

"Now then, if you're done with the contortions, I could go make us some coffee."

"I wouldn't. My coffee maker is temperamental. My reliance on fussy lattes is really more of a self-preservation thing than an addiction."

"I'll believe that when we walk into a Starbucks in a hundred mile radius where the baristas don't know your name and order by heart." James rested his hands on Kendall's chest. "I mean it, you know."

"I know. I mean, I'm finding it a little hard to believe that this isn't going to get yanked from under me like every other good thing in my life, but I believe you. I trust you." He skirted his hands up James' calves and brought them to rest on his knees. "So are we done talking about touchy-feely shit? Because if so, I'm totally digging out my old PS2 so I can kick your ass on Toshinden. I think I have all the characters unlocked."

"How perfectly manly. Avoiding talking about your feelings by defaulting back to a video game. You must be trying to woo me."

"If you'd prefer, I can dig out my burned copies of Torchwood."

"Careful. You're hitting all of my geek sex buttons. And unless you want to walk into work tomorrow with a significant limp, you will not subject me to John Barrowman in a coat."

* * *

 **Done! Like I said, kind of on the shorter side, but a good look at what's going on in James' head.**

 **So it looks like James is starting to see the signs that Jett was talking about. Will this affect his relationship with Kendall? And Kendall trusts James, but feels like their relationship isn't going to last :(**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on those revelations as well as the chapter in general! I'd also love to hear if you had a favorite moment! Even though I love Kames' interactions in general, my personal favorite moment was James getting over his worry of Jett being right to reassure Kendall that he was there for him. I just thought it was a sweet moment. I also liked the little glimpse into James' upbringing with his powers :)**

 **I've already started on the next chapter so that should be up by the weekend!**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: Hello again! I think this is the fastest I've updated in a while! Anyway, huge thank you to everyone that read last chapter!**

 **Winterschild11: Yeah, he did. For now... ;) And you're right about the breaking through. It's easier said than done, but James is probably the only one that would be able to do it. As for the BTR/Torchwood crossover, I've definitely thought about it! I actually even started planning one, but it wasn't very good :P Thanks so much for reviewing!**

 **There has been quite a bit of Kames the past couple of chapters, but things start shifting back to the case a little with this chapter!**

 **I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

Kendall and Lucy stumbled back and forth between the status quo and a new song and dance to which neither of them knew the steps. Lucy had stashed her letter away in one of her many desk drawers to go ignored and unmentioned, but there was stuff coming in for her. Lots of stuff. Packages and high-priority interoffice mail. She was suddenly the one clocking in silly amounts of overtime, juggling between her new responsibilities-which they were already piling on-and getting everything sorted for Kendall before they had to part ways. She bullied him into taking over the stuff he'd delegated her way over the years, and each stupid report he entered was another reminder that she was going to be gone as soon as they solved their case.

It was almost enough to make him procrastinate. He would have with anything else, but Kelly was counting on them. And it sucked. Between spending so much time with James and the sudden news of Lucy's imminent departure... Yet he had to solve this. And he had to do it soon. He'd already spent too much time angsting over the sorry state of his life.

"I got Patterson's employee profile for you."

Thankfully she was still the one getting the coffee. She handed him both a folder and an extra large white peppermint mocha before heading back to her desk. He looked at her over the rim of the cup, trying to decide how to ask delicately.

 _Screw it._ He waved the manila folder at her. "I thought it was going to be a week or more before we got this."

Lucy didn't bother looking up as she logged into her computer. "If they think I'm not going to abuse my new authority to help you out, they don't know me very well."

Kendall hid his grin by taking a sip of coffee. It tasted better than it had yesterday. He settled the cup amid the slowly dwindling stack of papers and flipped open the employee package. "Blake Patterson. Fifty-six. Worked for us before restructuring, blah blah blah, stuff I already know, performance review, upper level salary, clean background check... This guy was pretty much the most boring person we've ever had on staff, Luce. Where's the deep-seated psychosis? The criminal tendencies? The obvious red flags?"

"Maybe Dalhousie screwed him up."

Kendall sighed. "That's what her reports suggest. The stuff she was messing with fucked up all of her subjects. But there's gotta be more to it. According to her experiment log, she only used him once. If she messed someone up that badly in such a short amount of time, shouldn't her capture have gone down a lot differently?" He asked. "Something must've happened after he left us." Kendall turned to the last page. "Get this, it says he was, and I quote, 'dismissed due to our concerns with his loyalty to the experiments performed by Dr. Dalhousie, the bulk of which we have yet to define.' They didn't think that there was any chance of him continuing his employment after they closed Dalhousie's sick little circus. How could a person be so loyal to someone who was obviously out of their mind?"

"I ask myself that same thing every day."

"Ha-ha." Kendall deadpanned, flipping back through the file. "This still has the emergency contact info. Looks like he used his mother." He shuffled Kelly's report around. "Huh. If Kelly was right, he would've been married at the time of his employment. Is that weird? I wouldn't use my mother as my emergency contact if I was married."

"Unless your husband was an idiot."

"I think you're more likely to have that problem than me."

"Thanks."

"Kelly's report doesn't mention his mother. If she was so involved with her son, where the hell was she?"

"Dead." Lucy turned her screen to show him a coroner's report she'd pulled up while he was talking. "Died a few weeks before his wife was killed." With a few quick keystrokes and more new windows than Kendall could count, she called up a county-courthouse site for Berwick, Pennsylvania and had the mother's Will up on the screen. "He inherited her house."

"Kelly's report never mentioned that. And if he _is_ finding a way out of the hospital, I can see him using his mom's house to stash stuff he doesn't want us to find. He sort of struck me as, you know, shithouse rat crazy. I'll have to head out there to take a peek around."

"I'll get started on the requisition forms for your gas reimbursement. I'd come with you but..." She gestured to the mess of papers they'd sent down.

"No worries. I get it." It would've been nice to have company, but this would be part one of Kendall getting used to Lucy being gone. "I guess I'll head out."

"It's not too far. With your questionable driving skills, you could be back by late this afternoon."

"Assuming I don't run into a Norman Bates situation. One taxidermy bird and I'm outta there." He slung his shoulder holster across his back and secured it in place.

After checking both gun clips, he eased them inside. His phone and earpiece came next, and he waited patiently for Lucy to check her recording software to make sure he was good to go. "I think I'll run down by the clinic quick to tell James I'm heading out of town. If there's anything important out there, I might be gone overnight."

"You're getting so domesticated. It's adorable."

Kendall flipped her off and headed for the door.

His car seemed to have developed a sixth sense for James' location , he barely paid attention to the road on the drive to the clinic. A dozen people and a multitude of pets crowded reception, all clamoring for attention. Hadn't they only been closed a couple of days?

He made his way up to the counter. "Wow, it's like a z-"

The recptionist, Camille, if Kendall remembered correctly, scowled. "If you end that sentence with 'zoo in here' I won't be held responsible for my actions."

"Noted. Is Dr. Mitchell in?"

She seemed to recognize him from his last visit, becuase her eyes lit up slightly. "Yes. He's taking his lunch now." She waved him toward the Staff Only door behind her. "Tell him to stop hiding and be a man."

"Right." Kendall eased his way past a petulant-looking bulldog and into the back hallway towards James' office.

The deep sound of his lover's voice drifted through the hall, welcoming and familiar as it wound around him.

He knocked once before letting himself in, trying not to feel too ridiculously happy when James' eyes lit up. James gestured to the empty seat across his desk, winking at Kendall even as he continued his phone converstion.

"Uh-huh. Yeah...Gotcha. No, not necessary... What do you mean it is? I said... no. Will you... Mom, give me, like, ten seconds. I don't need you to set me up with any more of your friends. No, not even for dinner Sunday. I'm bringing someone."

Even from across the desk, Kendall could hear the cackle of disbelief.

"Shut up. Yes... yes... _yes_. Oh my God, I'm not telling you. You'll have to wait. Bye, Mom." He hung up before whoever was on the other line could get another word in. "Hey, babe. I'm glad you're here."

Kendall's eyebrow rose of it's own accord. "Oh?" He sort of enjoyed James' suddenly uncomfortable squirm across the desk. He looked good when he was nervous. And his being nervous went a long way in making sure Kendall wasn't.

"Yeah. So, that was my Mom. Once upon a time, she was the queen bitch of IT. Like, she'd fix your computer and belittle your self-worth, all for the low, low price of your soul."

Good to know someone was responsible for James' bad habits. "Go on."

"We're having this family dinner Sunday night for Dad's birthday, right? And every time we have one of these dinners, she sets me up with one of her neckbeard friends and expects me to entertain them and then fall deeply in love and adopt a bunch of neckbeard babies."

 _Neckbeard?_ "Okay..."

"Ken, I _need_ someone to come with me to this dinner, or she's going to do it again. Please come." James folded his hands together, pouting. "Please?"

Kendall fought back his grin. "What's it worth to you?"

"A BJ in my childhood bedroom?"

"Kinky."

"It's worth it. I've seen the face of evil, Kendall. It had three chins."

Kendall couldn't fight his laugh any longer. "I guess the idea of you getting groped by anyone else isn't too appealing."

James settled back in his chair. "Thank you! If it makes you feel any better, Dad is a fantastic cook."

"Shouldn't someone else cook if it's his birthday?"

"Mom can burn water. I wouldn't trust her within a mile of a kitchen. She's the one who convinced me to do the Pad Thai." James rose and rounded the desk. "My mother's inability to make a decent meal aside, it really is good to see you."

Kendall cocked his head to recieve a kiss on the cheek.

"You too. Unfortunately, I came to let you know I might nowt be able to get together for dinner tonight. I have to go out of town on a lead for the case."

James paused a beat too long before answering. "Oh. That sucks..."

 _Well, I feel like dirt now..._ "I'll be back before we head to your parent's place Sunday."

James tried and failed to keep the disappointment off his face. "Work's work." He didn't look convinced though. "I guess I'll call Shane and see if he wants to do something tonight."

"I'm really sorry. Raincheck?"

That seemed to have been the exact _wrong_ thing to say. James entire face shuttered like blinds dropped over a window. "Sure."

Kendall stood. He didn't know how to make this any better. "Oh, and Camille said to quit hiding."

James glowered at the door. "I'm not hiding."

"Of course you're not." Kendall planted another, quick kiss on James' lips. "I've gotta run. I'll miss you." The tone was light and teasing, but even as he said the words, Kendall realized they were true.

James' smile finally returned, even if it wasn't nearly as bright as it was minutes ago. "Me too." He brushed a few invisible pieces of lint off Kendall's coat. "I suppose I'll forgive you this once. Go catch some bad guys, Agent Knight." His tone was a hairsbreadth away from resigned, but he seemed to mean it all the same.

"Only if you go help some house pets, Dr. Mitchell." Kendall tore himself away. Making his way back through the clinic, he nodded to Camille on the way out.

It wasn't until he was back in his car that the realization hit him.

 _Holy shit. James is taking me home to meet his parents._

* * *

 **Done! I couldn't help but throw a little Kames in at the end ;)**

 **So Kendall has a new lead on the case! But at the cost of dinner with James, who isn't too thrilled with the idea. Will this really be a one time thing? Or is this a sign for things to come? In other news, it looks like Kendall is meeting James' parents!**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter, specifically the Kames raincheck as well as James' reaction and the plan for Kendall to meet James' parents! I'd also love to hear if you had a favorite moment! I personally loved the Kames portion. They're just so perfect together!**

 **I will update again when I can. I'll definitely update by next weekend at the latest, but I'm FINALLY getting close to finishing plotting out my Wattpad story so it's delaying me a bit :P But it's coming soon!**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N: Hello again everyone! I'm back with a new update! A huge thank you to everyone that read last chapter!**

 **winterschild11: Yeah, I try and slip in some Kames whenever I can :P Jett's definitely gotten into James' head a bit, unfortunately. But yes, Kendall meeting the parents is going to be very interesting to say the least ;)**

 **Side1ways: Aww, thank you so much! Only time will tell if it's the beginning of the end for Kames, but Kendall bailing on James really hurt my Kames heart a bit. And I'm glad you enjoyed The Deal! :D**

 **I hope everyone enjoys the new chapter!**

* * *

"Luce, this _is_ the Bates Motel."

She scoffed through the earpiece. "Stop being such a drama queen. It can't be that bad."

"All that's missing is a crack of thunder and creepy music." Even as he said the words, Lucy hummed something off-key and unnerving. "You are such a-"

"I'm starting the recording."

 _Bitch._ Kendall shifted his car into the park and stepped out of the driver's side. "Addendum to active Internal case MI-622. I'm at Blake Patterson's childhood home to see if we can find any evidence linking him to the deaths of Agent Wainwright and her husband. The hospital is skeptical of the theory that he's been leaving his room, but sightings of him in the corridors have stopped since we introduced the muting bracelet."

That didn't rule out an accomplice, however. It probably wasn't the best idea to just walk up the stairs and ring the bell.

Kendall made his way to the front door, avoiding the broken stone walkway. The porch was just as dilapidated. Rotten wood sagged under its own weight, and the peeling paint disintegrated at his touch. And sure enough, his foot sank into the step. That was it, he was going around back.

"The home shows signs of disrepair, which is in line with the amount of time he's been undergoing treatment." Around the corner of the house, a tall wooden gate blocked access to the backyard. A few extra inches. That was all he'd ever wanted. It wasn't as though he wanted to play basketball or anything. Well, now he knew who to blame.

Fortunately, there was a plastic milk crate shoved up against the house. Kendall yanked it out of the clutches of a knot of weeds to push it up to the gate. It barely have him enough height to reach over the top and undo the latch.

The backyard was a jungle of overgrown grass and dead plant matter. _Should've brought a machete._ The deck seemed to be in better shape than the porch and Kendall didn't fear quite so much for his life as he mounted it to get to the back door.

He checked the lock. Four pin. Easy. He pulled his picks and set to work on the lock. It was as old as the rest of the house and he was inside in less than a minute. The decor was straight out of his childhood, faux wood paneling and wall-to-wall brown shag carpet.

"Hey, Luce. You know that weird, musty smell a house gets after it's been empty for a while? This place doesn't smell that way." That was promising. The narrow hallway led straight into the kitchen. Heavy drapes covered most of the windows, leaving small slits of sunlight to dimly light the home's interior. Even if someone had been inside, between the high fence and the curtains, none of the neighbors would have seen anything. "This place looks like someone's gone to a lot of trouble to make it look unoccupied." He opened the old-looking fridge. "But they should've been more careful. There's a carton of milk on here that hasn't expired yet." Fast food boxes littered the shelves, haphazardly organized. Most of them seemed recent, but there was a definite funk drifting up from one of the pizza boxes. "Whoever's living here isn't particularly good housekeeper." There was nothing in the freezer except a few empty ice-cube trays.

He continue onward. The cupboards held the usual assortment of mismatched plates and cutlery-nothing really interesting-and the rest of the main floor was similarly barren. Heavy sheets covered all the furniture, ghosts still and sullen in the daylight.

"Yay! Time to head downstairs. Ten bucks says there are bodies stacked in the cellar."

"You're such an optimist, Ken."

Nothing happened when he flicked the light switch at the top of the basement stairs. It was unbelievably dark down there. "This is getting too Blair Witch for me."

"Sissy."

Rolling his eyes, Kendall pulled out his flashlight. Tentatively, he took the first step. It creaked under the weight of his foot, but held. He eased himself down the stairs, the smell of soil and rotting leaves hitting him hard. The air was frigid from the lack of insulation. The stairs took a sharp turn from the landing, and opened up farther down, obscuring any possible light from the dim hallway behind him. Ducking under an unfinished overhang to get a better view of the space, he swept the room with the industrial-strength beam. There was a single furnace and hot-water heater, but the rest of the area was all soft-packed dirt.

"Doesn't look like anyth-" He stopped himself when he saw the small mound of dirt in the far corner of the room. "Never mind. There's something buried down here."

"The body you expected?"

"Not unless he murdered Tinker Bell." He moved down the remaining steps.

Footprints on the floor led to the miniature burial site. He knelt on the last step to get a better look at them, though they'd caved in with age. "In the basement floor, there are footprints in the soil. I'd say men's size eleven or twelve. No distinctive tread or identifying marks to indicate brand."

He crossed the room, the soft earth sucking his feet with every step. He stuck the butt of the flashlight in his mouth to free his hands and knelt down. He dug in, pushing aside large clumps of loose-packed soil to dig up whatever had been hidden. _And so help me, if it's a dead pet…_

Was that someone upstairs?

Grabbing the flashlight out of his mouth, he killed the light. The entire room dropped into darkness, save for the bare blue light flashing in his ear. Breathing through his mouth, he eased himself to his feet, listening. The great thing about old houses is that you could hear pretty much everything.

It came again. The creaking of a floorboard. Almost silent.

"Lucy?" His voice was a bare whisper. "I've gotta go offline. There's someone else in the house." Before she could respond, he switched off the earpiece, unnerved by the complete blackness that followed. He squeezed the hard plastic flashlight as he waited for another sound.

It came again. There was definitely someone on the main floor. And they were right overhead.

He pulled his gun free of its holster and flicked off the safety. Hopefully, he wouldn't need it.

 _Fuck._ He'd left the basement door open.

The creaking continued. Footsteps. He hadn't heard the backdoor open or close. Had there been someone on the second floor? _No way… I would've heard them. Or they would've heard me._

The sounds stopped right about where the basement door was.

 _Here's an idea, Whitman, why don't you turn on your light, go upstairs and introduce yourself as a Society agent? For all you know, it's the caretaker._

 _Right… because a house this badly off has a caretaker._

He waited for steps on the stairs. Nothing. And no further shift or creaks on the floor. Was the person just… waiting? It wasn't as if he'd be going up there and-

The sound of someone else taking a labored breath beside him filled his ears. His heart leaped into his throat.

 _No way. No fucking way._ He could feel the person nearby, probably within arm's reach. And neither of them could see in the dark. Presumably. Otherwise, he'd likely be eating dirt.

He heard the whisper of air around a flailing limb. _Oh shit, is there a light?_

Metal beads clicked against glass and, with a blinding flare, a bare overhead bulb sprang to light. Kendall's gun swung uselessly in the direction of the other person, but his eyes burned with the glare. He got a single second's look-Patterson! How had he gotten out the hospital?-but before he could even blink, a heavy fist smashed into his jaw and sent him spiraling to the ground. His gun went flying.

 _Fuck fuck fuck-_

He grabbed blindly for his gun, but the man jumped him. Large hands circled his throat from behind and fingers dug into his windpipe. Dark spots lingering in Kendall's eyes from the light expanded. He barely brushed the gun barrel with his middle finger before the grip around his throat tightened and hauled him backward. His phone slipped from his pocket and crunched under his attacker's knee. He clawed at the hands, trying to loosen the hold enough to take a breath.

Patterson snatched his arm and hauled it sharply back and away, the extreme angle pulling it straight out of his shoulder and-holy hell, that burned! His body went limp from the shock and both hands wrapped around his throat again.

Kendall kicked into overdrive as the spots in front of his eyes grew. He thrashed wildly to break away. Each jerk of his injured shoulder sucked more of the fight out of him. His arms dropped to the ground, first one and then the other as the strength sapped from them. He forced a wheezing breath past the obstruction in his throat, the shock of the single breath enough to send him barreling into unconsciousness.

* * *

 **Done! So yeah, our favorite blond has gone and gotten himself into trouble.**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter!**

 **Luckily, I've already started the next chapter, so you won't have to wait too long for that. I'm planning on having it up by Tuesday!**

 **Until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N: Hello everyone! I'm back with a new chapter!**

 **Before we get started, I have to give a huge thank you to everyone that read last chapter! And a special thank you to winterschild11 and annabellex2 for reviewing last chapter!**

 **So, I had a completely different plan for this chapter, but I decided to do something a little different.**

 **I hope you all enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

When his power had been at its height, he could've touched the shadows anywhere on the planet and been at home. Foreign darkness had been as intimate a lover as any he'd ever known. He'd existed in every shadowy corner of the world, waiting and pensive and eager for acknowledge and sacrifice. These days, his power was diminished and far less impressive, but he could still feel Ms. Lucy Stone storming down the hallway toward his office as well as Matthew's worry.

Kevin sighed. As of late, Matthew was feeling more disgruntled than usual. If he wanted to avoid the man's impending mental breakdown, he'd have to do something nice.

Lucy opened the door without knocking, leaving Matthew flabbergasted in her wake. Kendall wasn't with her. Kevin's eyebrow twitched. The smell of her ill-concealed fear clawed at his senses. What frightened her? Surely not a run-in with the killer? He'd followed Kendall's case with carefully constructed distance, waiting for the moment he could violently avenge Kelly's death. Kendall was under orders to communicate any relevant updates. It couldn't be that.

Then what? "Ms. Stone-"

"Kendall's missing."

Kevin stared at her, not quite processing the words.

"Missing?"

Surely, Kendall had gone missing before? On other cases? He racked his memory and came up with nothing. Kendall was one of Kevin's best-genetic connection notwithstanding-and Kevin couldn't think of a time where Lucy had come to him directly with such news.

He stood. All around him, the shadows created by his pathetic little lamp seethed in time with his heartbeat, strumming out a worried rhythm as he considered the implications of what Lucy was saying.

 _Kendall is missing._

"This is connected to your current case file?" He kept his voice even. His face stoic. Lucy couldn't read the anxious twisting of the shadows around him, the only indication of his heart's faltering worry.

"Yes, sir. He was investigating a lead and he's vanished. I have a team on their way to his last known location right now."

"And is there any particular reason he was there alone?"

He felt Lucy's entire body tense. "It was me, sir. Kendall and I didn't think there'd be any harm in him going alone on a routine break and enter, so I stayed behind to get some administrative work done."

The air in the room stilled. "My so- Agent Knight is missing because you had paperwork?" He wondered if Kendall had shared word of his parentage. There was nothing in her gaze except for a healthy amount of respect and no small measure of fear. Surely, had she known, she would have said something…

"Yes, sir."

He summoned every scrap of willpower he possessed to keep his voice calm. "There was a reason why we created the 'assistant' designation, Ms. Stone. It was to avoid situations like this one." Because in the days after he'd assumed control of the Society, there hadn't been enough qualified field agents to go around. Assistants were supposed to do background work and make sure that their agents didn't do anything stupid. _Like this._

And now, because Lucy, Kendall was…

"I know, sir."

He heard the self-loathing in her voice. He almost, _almost_ , ignored it in favor of verbally flaying her alive. He suspected, however, that she'd give back as good as he gave and he wasn't prepared to answer questions about his fit of temper. He'd tried too hard to keep himself away from Kendall's life as much as possible. "Do you have a recovery plan in place?"

"I have Agent Zevon and a small team en route to the address to see if there's anything that can point us in the right direction."

"And if they find his body? If he's not alive?"

Lucy paled visibly. "Then you can expect my resignation before the end of the day."

Kevin nodded stiffly. "Don't think I won't."

Lucy started out, her steps far less certain than they'd been when she'd entered. Kevin didn't wait for her to leave before a small flicker of shadow snapped out and smashed the lamp on his desk, plunging the room into darkness. She paused, the bare sliver of light barely penetrating the deepening darkness he'd wrapped around himself. She lingered a moment too long and his temper faded away to nothing.

" _OUT!"_

The word emanated from the darkness around him, a command she immediately obeyed. She shut the door behind herself so quickly that the bolt bounced out of alignment. With the barest whisper of thought, he sent a small tendril of shadow to secure it. He'd modified the door long ago to make sure the merciless and unforgiving light couldn't break through. Darkness swallowed him in familiar depths, easing some of the pressing ache in his chest.

Kendall wasn't supposed to be anything more than another agent. He'd _told_ Kendall that he wasn't anything more. He'd made it abundantly clear.

Why?

He lashed out, cracking his desk into splinters. Papers exploded outward in dancing spirals of shredded snow, hanging still in the choking air around them. The dark part of him screamed with anger. He'd denied Kendall and now he was gone. His last breath of humanity. _Kelly always told you you'd regret your reluctance to become a part of his life._ Faced with his disappearance, Kevin began to realize how correct she'd been.

 _Calm down, Kevin._ Dak Zevon was very good at his job. He'd find whoever took Kendall, and whether _his son_ was alive or dead, there would be hell to pay for whoever was behind his disappearance.

 _Especially if they took Kelly's life._

The temperature in the room plummeted. His thoughts strayed to the photos of Kelly's body. Her eyes torn out. He'd believed himself far and beyond the ability to feel the stabbing grief that had followed fast on her death.

He'd been wrong.

Like he'd been wrong about Kendall. He'd anticipated Kendall sharing some part of the darkness in which Kevin was bound, but there had been no signs of such power in the boy. _Which is a shame. Maybe if he shared the same power as me, he wouldn't be in danger._

Kevin broke from the unsettling thoughts. The blackness retreated and the paper fluttered to the floor.

The door to his office flung open before him.

"Matthew, I need a new desk."

"I heard."

He made his way down the hall, grimly satisfied when people leaped out of his way. Stopping in front of Kendall's office, he opened the door. Lucy was already in communication with their team, and Kevin listened to her efficient instructions for several moments before calling attention to his presence.

She muted her earpiece. "Sir?

"When Kendall is recovered, please let me know."

"Of course, sir."

He nodded sharply before turning and walking out of the room.

* * *

 **Done! So there you have it! I know that this chapter is a little shorter, but I wanted to give you all a little look at what's going on in Kevin's head. There will be a a little more revealed about him as the story goes on, but this was a starting point.**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter as well as your opinions on Kevin at this point!**

 **There will be another chapter coming sometime this weekend where we will pick up with Lucy and Dak trying to find Kendall!**

 **Until next time!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: Hello again everyone! So, I was originally going to update this story, as well as On Your Side. But life got in the way and I wasn't able to finish the update for On Your Side. But luckily I finished this chapter!**

 **As always, thank you to everyone that read last chapter, and a huge thank you to winterschild11 and annabellex2 for reviewing!**

 **This is chapter is a little on the short side as well, but I hope you all enjoy!**

* * *

"I'm sorry Lucy, but we've searched the entire house and there's nothing else here."

Lucy grabbed the corner of her desk, tightening her hold until her knuckles turned white. She wanted to rip the earpiece out and throw it across the room. Or accuse Dak of lying. Or _something_ that would make her feel better about Kendall's disappearance. Kevin's intimidation techniques just hadn't cut it. Too wired to sit, she shifted back and forth on her shoes-which were becoming increasingly uncomfortable by the second-and wracked her brain over what Kendall had said before disappearing. Had there been any indication of what had happened to him? She couldn't remember.

"Is there anything else? _Anything_?"

"No. I'm really sorry."

Lucy loosened her fingers-blood painfully flooding back into them-and pulled away from her desk to pace the room for the millionth time. It cleared her head enough that she could take a deep breath. _Stay strong._ "I want a last check of the house. If there's something even remotely interesting or out of place, I want it tagged and collected. I've commissioned three of our psychometrics to catalogue everything you bring back."

"We'll do everything we can."

The door to the office burst open and Jett stormed inside. Lucy could feel her face pulling into a silent glare.

"What's being done?"

 _I don't need this right now._ "We have it under control." He had ten seconds to turn around and walk right back out that door before she introduced him to her fist. Hell, with her promotion, a certain amount of percussive persuasion was expected.

"Listen, I'm aware of how badly I messed up our relationship, but that doesn't mean I don't still care about him."

"I-" She cut herself off when James appeared in the doorway. A visitor pass hung from a chord around his neck, and he took one look at the situation before interposing himself between them.

"Lucy?"

"He's offering help."

James didn't look impressed. "Why?"

"I don't need to justify myself to you."

This was about to turn into something ugly. "Enough. Agent Stetson, if you're really interested in helping, then you get your ass to the asylum where we're holding Blake Patterson and find out what his current status is. If he's the one responsible, I want to know."

Jett quickly spun on his heels and walked out the door. He didn't touch it, but it still slammed shut behind him. James' eye twitched. They exchanged a silent look of understanding and she removed her earpiece. Setting it down on the desk, she switched her phone onto speaker.

"... and I don't see why-"

"Dak? I'm sorry, but could please go over what we've got one more time?"

"Of course. There are signs someone's been squatting in the attic. Not much more than a mattress and some pornographic magazine. The rest of the house is covered with drop cloths. It's in bad shape. I'm currently in the basement with our forensics team. There are signs of a struggle, but no body. We found one of Kendall's guns. And what remains of his phone."

James' jaw clenched. Lucy offered her hand and he took it in a tight grip.

"What about the mound of dirt?"

"Whatever Kendall found was reburied. We've just finished unearthing a small metal lockbox. There's not much inside. Only pictures of women."

"More pornography?"

"No. Polaroids. Different women. Maybe sisters. They're all unlabeled." Over the speaker, she could hear him shuffling through the contents of the box, his watch banging against the sides. "There's also a picture of two boys. This one's older. From the exposure, I'd guess late fifties. Early sixties, maybe."

"Bring everything you found back to headquarters. Head right down to evidence. I'll make sure they know to expect you. I've gotten the go-ahead from Kevin to expedite everything."

"Thank you. May I ask how you're holding up?"

James squeezed her hand and dropped it.

"I'll be better once we find him. Get your ass back to HQ. And don't forget his car." She disconnected the call and looked at James. "I'm glad you're here."

"Thank you for calling me." James looked at a loss, so Lucy gestured him to one of the chairs. "I stopped listening after you said he'd gone missing. Can you tell me again what happened?"

Lucy nodded and filled him in. "When he didn't reinitiate contact within ten minutes, I contacted the local authorities with an anonymous tip that someone had broken in. They didn't find anything. The officer who went to check it out said the call had been a hoax, and I sent Dak and a forensics team out to investigate. That was four hours ago." Did James hear the self-recrimination in her voice?

James pulled his lips into a tight frown. "So what now?"

"Dak's going to return with the findings, and our psychometrics are going to use them to see what happened to Kendall. You know Jett's checking on our suspect. Kendall was looking for evidence against him."

"And then?"

"We employ a number of psychics who are going to be actively searching for him. I've already sent a few of our people to his place to collect personal items to help them."

"And then?"

"Standard procedure says that we run continuous checks on hospitals and morgues for anyone admitted who matches Kendall's description."

"And then?"

Lucy slammed her palm down on the desk. "Dammit, James, I don't know!" She dropped into her chair, covering her eyes. The frustration welled inside her, pushing against her chest and turning her words into a half sob. " _Kendall_ is the agent. And while I might do more than your average assistant around here, I don't have the same instincts he does. Kendall can look at a piece of ripped carpet and not only tell you what happened to the damn floor, but what the rest of the room looks like. I can't do that."

James rested his hands on her shoulders and pressed his thumbs into her back, not quite massaging but offering a solid presence. His palms were warm.

"This isn't your fault, Luce."

"Kendall shouldn't have been there alone." She whispered.

"He wouldn't have gone in without backup if he believed he was in danger. And whoever took him had to know that the Society would come to investigate his disappearance. If Kendall was dead, they would've left a body, right?"

Desperate need for reassurance choked James' words. Lucy didn't know how much she had to give. Instead of answering, she rested her forehead against his knuckles. They stood in heavy silence, not quite sure what to say to each other to fill the space that was suddenly separating them from the threads of hope disappearing into the air.

* * *

 **Done! So James and Lucy aren't taking Kendall's disappearance too well :(**

 **I'd love to hear your thoughts on the new chapter!**

 **I will try to update again by next weekend at the latest and will try to update On Your Side as well!**

 **Until then!**

 **-Epically Obsessed**


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